What's the deal with this "internet", am I right folks?

Hey, remember this Angelo Persichilli fellow? He’s done roughly one notable thing in his journalism career, and that was writing a column where he made up a bunch of lies, slander and unverifiable claims. Now he’s complaining that bloggers are making up a bunch of lies, slander and unverifiable claims using this crazy new “internet” gadget! Honestly, sometimes this stuff just writes itself.

Writing in his blog (!!) for the Hill Times, otherwise known as the rag that party staffers occasionally browse to see if their boss’s name was mentioned, Angelo offers a bewildered look at this thing called “inter-net”, which allows computing-machines to speak to each other through tele-phone lines. What an age we live in! What’s next, the microwaveable pizza? Anyways, Angelo has found out that occasionally people speak of Canadian politics on this inter-net, but that whenever bloggers try the delicate craft of political commentary, they inevitably devolve into petty gossip, scuttlebutt and lies – something that he wouldn’t know about, a man a mere 2 weeks away from an entire political party condemning his fraudulently-sourced attack piece published in an actual newspaper.

The irony is rich, and layered, like an onion. Please, Angelo Persichilli, ace journalist whose words get printed on actual paper and get delivered to actual humans, teach us about how the unwashed masses of unemployed cheeto-stained bloggers are ruining the written word!

First of all, a warning – the entire first half of his article reads like something the football player would hand in as his essay for a first-year media studies course at a community college. Major points he makes: the internet lets people get involved with stuff, but with this level of participation comes a threat that journalistic integrity suffers. Angelo Persichilli has blown the lid off of this emerging story! Perhaps if he acquires a time machine and travels back to 1995, before everyone and their grandchildren had figured out these basic truths about the internet, he could sweep the 1995 Pulitzer Prizes. He stretches out this main point over about 10 paragraphs, making you believe that the football player half-assed this essay about a half-hour before it was due.

“I believe that the internet should continue to be used and in the future will play a more important role.”

THANKS FOR PERMISSION TO KEEP USING THE INTERNET, I guess! Honestly, this would be where the media studies professor rolls their eyes and goes “Didn’t anyone teach these kids how to write an essay before sending them to college?”

“Using the new medium might be fun for individuals who have nothing to lose if they make mistakes.”

You’re right! It is entirely fun for us wacky bloggers to use this “new” (i.e., “about 20 years old”) medium of the internet to commit wacky slander and lies, things that you, a respected vanguard of the written word and of journalistic ethics, would never do.

[Source: Hill Times]

[The Globe&Fail making fun of Persichilli, which is a bad sign]