I Like You, However

There are lots of blog posts on the internet about all of the God-Forsaken quizzes you can take on Facebook, and trust that there posts about them for a reason.  I have taken everything from "Which Book of the Bible Most Represents You" to "Are You Gay or Not?"*  People take the quizzes because they are fun and sometimes you can get your friends to either stand up for you in defense against "You are The French Taunter from The Holy Grail" - or rail you for it because it's dead on.

There are also polls galore, though most of them recently have been about Michael Vick or Healthcare and you simply say "yes" "no" "maybe" or "what the hell - NO!"**  I do a lot of these, mostly because I like to see the results.  I think that Facebook is skewed, but I'm part of the skew so most often I find myself in the majority.  (I don't think that Facebook is diverse enough, but that is true of a lot of the internet.  Just a lower priority for a lot of people, and that's okay, but it needs to be said.)  Some of the answers have surprised me from some folks, and so honest conversation has been had and I've been enlightened and enlightening.

I like knowing what other people are thinking - not only can it build community, but it can foster better conversations both online and offline.  It's also kind of fun!

However.  (and nothing good ever comes after however.)

In my opinion, polls have no place in news shows.  Neither do Twitter Tweets, they are not news.  I think that we are about five channels too deep on actual news coverage, and to be honest I have abandoned watching any TV news and just check around on the web for reliable news.  All of the cable channels do it and it has got to stop. "@armonroe thinks that the Governor of California started the wildfires to gain publicity for his Surplus Yard Sale and it backfired" should never leave the lips of anyone on television, much less an agency intending to report on news.

It's not journalism, it's crap.  Leave tweets to Twitter, polls to reliable institutions and the news to news makers.
/rant

*Are You Gay or Not quiz was several questions, but the last was simply "Are you gay?"
**What the hell - NO! was my answer to "Should Sarah Palin run for President"