In the News
Connecting the world with fact and fiction
Mark Rosman

  I love the Internet. No, wait a second, I hate the Internet. Oh, the heck with it. I can't make up my mind about the Internet.

Is the Internet the best thing to happen to mankind, a way of joining the world together, linking nations and people, news and information?

Or is the Internet the worst possible development ever to come out of a technogeek's mind, a window on the mind of every moron with a keyboard and a modem?

For me the jury is still out, and depending on the day of the week, I can go with the "best idea ever" or the "worst idea ever" answer.

I read Internet message boards daily as part of my job as the managing editor of a newspaper to see if anything being posted on them bears some local examination by a reporter.

Back in July 1982 when I started working as a reporter with Greater Media Newspapers, I could not have imagined the day when messages posted online would serve as the inspiration for a news story. It has happened, however, and that is amazing to me.

The world has changed, and this newspaper has changed with it. Our articles are posted on our Internet Web site (www.gmnews.com) and read by people all over the country, if not the world.

Within the past few weeks some of our staff writers and editors have started to record their columns on our Web site, so that people can download them as podcasts. I happen to enjoy recording my columns because it brings me back to my original work in communications - radio - and the feeling one gets from speaking directly to a listener.

However, not all is happy in cyberspace. Reading some of the postings on message boards is like making one's way through a minefield of stupidity. Can't anyone who posts a message online spell correctly? Can't the dolts who post questions about the things that they have "heard" are going on in their town figure out they can get the answer to their questions by calling a local official or going to a public meeting and asking if what they "heard" is true?

And if the brainiacs who post messages online are so certain they have all the answers and have the facts straight, why don't they use the real names of people they write about and state their accusations about these individuals straight up?

Why is there all of this dancing around with initials and pet names and allusions to acts that people have allegedly committed?

Oh, that's right, because even anonymous posters can be traced and held accountable for what they say.

I have no problem with the new breed of Internet newshounds, but I would suggest that if they want to be taken seriously, they should adhere to the established guidelines that newspapers, radio and television have followed for years - that rumor and innuendo, and allegations with no basis in fact are not the way to shine a light on real improprieties.

I find the Internet message boards full of coincidences, as well.

For example, I had a telephone call from a public figure a few weeks ago who asked me why we had not been sending a reporter to Newark every day to cover the federal trial of Frank Abate, the former executive director of the Western Monmouth Utilities Authority.

He questioned my news judgment (said I had none) and told me a local daily newspaper found the trial to be newsworthy enough to send a reporter to Newark each day. No kidding! A daily newspaper covering daily news? Amazing.

(For the record - we do not cover

trials because I do not have a reporter I can pull off a regular beat to write just one story a week. We did report the outcome of the Abate trial with information provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office).

Here's the coincidence. Just a day or two after I received that telephone call, what message do I see on an Internet message board?

You guessed right. A posting from an anonymous individual asking how come we did not believe the Abate trial was newsworthy enough to send a reporter to cover and noting that the local daily newspaper did just that.

Whoa, doctor! I can't prove who wrote that message board note, but I sure have my suspicions.

I love the Internet, no, wait, I hate the Internet.

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the Tri-Town News.