Ball really don't lie

Okay, I admit. I’m a “fake.” I’m a part of the ever-growing contingent of know-it-all bloggers. We’re responsible for most of the whack rumors, lustful embellishments and blatantly obvious lies you see constantly flushing down the geek wire vortex. I gave the Houston Rockets a virtual dropkick out of the playoff picture when I heard the Great Wall fell. I’m on record saying Detroit would sign Dale Davis, but Theo Ratliff’s now in D-Town. According to me, the Suns will miss the playoffs and the Pistons won’t make another Finals appearance until at least 2018.

I may be wrong; I probably am. I may have lost all credibility. But I’m still happy. Why? I can say anything, campaign for anything, debunk anything and have my message heard instantly around the globe with amazing speed.

We didn’t always have this luxury.

Information is revolutionized. Sure, the accuracy is taking a hit. Ethics, trustworthy sources or the ubiquitous balancing act adhered to by credentialed ‘experts’ doesn’t always apply. Today, the responsibility to harness, create, critique, organize and understand is on us. Today, we are authority. Throughout our nation’s history, the independent newspaper has been America’s flagstone of true democracy. The First Amendment protects the right of newspapers and other forms of speech from censure. The right to express one’s opinion is American. Critique is American. This is why the information highway is more American than even the daily’s.

*****

You know the story about FireGeorgeKarl.com.

On Feb. 26, the blog’s founder and longtime Nuggets fan Andrew Feinstein received an email from Karl's lawyer that threatened to sue Feinstein “into bankruptcy.” Feinstein, after speaking with his lawyers, decided to publish the email.

The email, in turn, sparked a massive series of links and mentions in the media. The entire campaign to fire George Karl was brought into the national spotlight. My mom even called me about it that night. We now have easy access to a powerful tool in which every word we write gets noticed. Feinstein proved how quickly the Internet resonates information. It doesn’t have to be in the Sunday sports column make waves. It’s almost too simple to rally a groundswell of support. Is there a better example of democracy’s bread and butter than FireGeorgeKarl.com?

*****

In 2005, I had to say something. People were going blind about University of Illinois coach Bruce Weber. I wrote a scathing piece about Weber who brought the Fighting Illini to the NCAA Championship Game for the first time in 100 years. Weber, in the land of Illini, was affectionately called BAM – Bruce Almighty – by all except me. It was my first big feature I published in print. Chicago Sports Weekly, a little free publication by the checkout counters in every corner Seven Eleven, picked my story up. Circulation was measured in blocks, not in the thousands.

While a small budget was killing the print edition, it had a decent web presence, and often featured regular journalists you’d know by name. Within minutes of posting my story, the popular U of I hoops forum “Illini Board” blew up with comments about the story. In 24 hours, over 4,500 comments hit that board.

BAM was officially on blast. Thanks to the Web.

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It’s tough not to wax poetic about the power of the individual. The original authority of group speak has come to prominence through the remarkably democratic information network. The Internet has over 3 trillion words and 500 billion links. A new blog is born every half second. Most of us already have our names or comments somewhere on it. We are the Web. Three trillion words…and we’re just getting started.

It’s called Web 2.0, the information revolution. Together we create far more information than the experts. We organize the information ourselves without material constraints. Today, everything is miscellaneous. We can trust the network, a collective mind so to speak, and correct information in the instances when it’s erroneous. The Internet has come to discredit the idea of the ‘expert’ because the collective group will always know more than one person. No opinion can be trusted completely unless tested and discussed through a truly free forum. Today’s Internet puts no opinion above the rest. Web 2.0 is linking people and information. People are sharing, trading and collaborating at an unprecedented rate. Authority is in the voice of the collective. It’s time to trust and embrace most information on the Net, not shun it.