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I was looking through Yahoo the other day and found an interesting sports story.  A basketball team that found itself behind before the game had even started.  Now that was interesting enough for me to check it out even though I am not a sports fan anymore.  Still I was pretty sure what had happened before I looked.  The team had committed a technical foul either during warm up or just before the opening tip.  Its rare but it can happen.  I used to see it happen sometimes in high school basketball.  I read the story and yes a technical had been given during warm up.  One of the players had dunked during warm up.  It rarely happens because coaches know and teach their players that you can’t dunk during warm up practice.  I think it is a safety measure because pre-game warm up is like exercise warm up.  It loosens up and stretches your muscles so their is less chance you will get injured during the game.  Ah well not that interesting of a story after all, but I read on through and this is what really got my attention.  The “reporter made the comment that he had no idea that pre-game dunking was against the rules.  He stated that in all his years of reporting he though he knew the game, but he guessed there was no way to know all the rules.  This was incredible!  I haven’t watched a basketball game in over five years and I know the rule.  Most of the comments on his page also reflected shock that he didn’t know the rule.  How could a sports reporter not know about this?  Because he isn’t a reporter, he is a blogger.  More and more we get our information from the front page of Yahoo or Google or AOL instead of actual reporters who do research and dig into subjects before reporting it.  Even they make mistakes but at least for the most part they try to be informed about their subject.  Anyone can blog and that is what makes the Internet such a wonderful thing and also so dangerous.

Freedom of the press is one of the blocks that America is founded on.  We rely on the press to keep us informed and to keep our leaders honest. Over the years they have done it with varying degrees of success and impartiality.  Now the Internet comes along and we don’t have to rely on a Washington journalist to inform us.  Videos like the Rodney King beating don’t have to rely on a TV station’s decision to broadcast.  We can all upload directly to YouTube, minutes after something happens.  Five minutes after Lindsey Lohan staggers down Hollywood Boulevard, Perez Hilton can be blogging about it.  No longer can dictators hide their atrocities behind Iron Curtains.  the Internet truly is the greatest source of information in the history of man.  Still with that freedom comes the freedom of misinformation as well.  If anyone can post the truth, then anyone can post a lie.  Everybody can call themselves a reporter or an expert.  We have seen the little stuff in abundance.  Celebrities have lies spread about them, nude photos meant to be private get posted by “friends,” cell phones get hacked, and fake videos get posted.  We are going to have to learn to filter out the good from the bad and also to analysis what we see and read on the Internet.  How much of a video that we see has been edited?  Simply decided when to push the “record” button on a video camera can bring a whole new meaning to the video.  We have to accept the face that everything on the Internet could have been posted by someone with an agenda.  Yes its possible the mainstream press could have an agenda and at times they do, but when everyone in America can post anything then the chances of bad information becomes incredible.

We also have to deal with propaganda.  While the world can now more easily see how great America is and can lead more opportunities to want to be as free as us, it also gives terrorists a platform.  The recent beheadings by terrorist groups are a prime example.  They were posted to strike fear into the rest of the world’s population to advance what they see as  a struggle for freedom.  The killings were horrible and I feel disgusted by the act.  These were not the first time horrible things have happened though.  Atrocities were committed by many different people and nations in the world’s history.  Bombs and beheadings are nothing new, they ave been a part of religious oppression and struggles for freedom around the world.  They have never been able to be almost instantly broadcast around the world though.  Most modern nations are glad that their is no visual proof of their atrocities.  Even with these tapes we have to make sure who is posting what.  Could atrocities be posted not by the people committing them but by their enemies?  Could the whole thing be staged?  I am not a conspiracy theorist but it has happened in the past with more mainstream sources.  Loom at all the conflicting stories about 9/11.  More and more “proof” is being broadcast every day saying that 9/11 was a hoax or was orchestrated by the United States government.  Is it real or is it fake?  I know what I belive , but I have to accept that there are a large number of people who believe otherwise.  It is true both sides of the argument have an agenda and both sides have a reason to fake information and post it.  that is the great pro and con of the Internet.  It allows everyone to express their opinion and it allows everyone to post their evidence.  Possibly the greatest challenge  for America and the World is learning how to filter out that information.