Saturday, February 17, 2007

Our audiences are smart

I know some of you have wrestled with questions about whether allowing comments and forums generated by readers somehow devalues or contaminates staff-produced content.

No.

Fact is, audiences are pretty smart, and they can tell the difference between a nuanced staff editorial and a partisan rant. They understand a detailed, documented investigative piece carries more weight than an ungrounded conspiracy theory.

David Weinberger said this far more elegantly at a recent panel discussion pondering these questions at NPR. You can watch a video clip of his argument at Andy Carvin's peripatetic, multimedia blog.

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