The Most troubing trend in journalism has been quoting newsgroups and message boards. I already rage against the "neighbor" interview on TV news. "uh, he didn't seem like the kind of guy that would do that. I never would have guessed he was capable of doing that" (though that did lead to the game where my wife and I pick who we know that we'd have to tell the local news "um, yeah, I'm actually not surprised"). Random witnesses/neighbors/family/someone-who-lives-in-the-same-city do not add anything to my understanding of the story. I could care less. And quoting random people with nothing better to do than post their opinion online is taking that 10 bijillion times too far (can you belive that? people who just post their unsolicited opinion online? ridiculous). I can't believe it even fits within the ethics of being a journalist outside The Enquirer.

*If you couldn't tell, I'm trying to make this "asterisk in the subject" my thang. Unfortanately, I'm starting to discover I'm not creative.**

**This doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing it