The word of Blogs is spreading

Overheard in the middle of South Dakota: a conversation between the locals about how blogs are fact checking everyone.

The word is spreading. 8)

Bloggers are Post Factoid

The reason we love blogs is Context. Bloggers point to the original sources, we maintain all of the context. We don't cut out little factoids and sound bites to spin a situation. That's why we sound genuine. We're not hiding anything behind a well crafted sound bite. It's just that simple.

Welcome to the Post Factoid Era.

Destroying context a factoid at a time

Factoid of the day: No plan ever made to help New Orleans' most vulnerable

This thread first started with the link posted above. Various political games are now beginning to be played using it as a tool to try to shift the blame for the holocaust unfolding on the gulf coast. It's important to be able to follow back to the original resources, the most important of which, in the political context, is unavailable thanks to a paywall.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune on July 24, 2005 published an often quoted, but unavailable article, with the following quotes:

"City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

"In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation."

I've done every concievable Google search, searched the archives, and done about everything I can to get a copy of the article in question via the usual channels. I've now written to the letters section of the paper to try to get the original article.

If this paper didn't have a paywall, and this information weren't hidden in a secret garden, it would be a simple matter to follow the links. Unfortunately, we're left with some dead pointers, and quotes without context, in other words, a Factoid.

Factiod - a wholly spurious "fact" invented to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion.

I want to know the circumstances of this story, I want context... it's important to learn the painful lessons of Katrina, the price of ignoring them is too dear. We need all the context we can get in order to learn the correct lessons from this tragedy.


Welcome to the post factoid era. Sound bites will no longer be accepted.