Why This Is The Most Important Blog Post You'll Ever Read

The general trend of internet reporting goes something like this:

Here's Something You Think Is Good And Why It's Really Bad

And then the content of the piece is, "I am one individual who has a specific viewpoint about a situation informed by a personal experience that may or may not be representative of a broader problem. I will cherry pick certain statistics that directionally support my thesis. And then I will write in a matter that is ever so slightly (or not so slightly) condescending and patronizing so that the reader is convinced that what he or she thought was right is actually wrong."

The eZine Slate is a great example of a site with talented journalists that has migrated to the Buzzfeed style of content generation and promotion. I have been reading Slate for 6 or 7 years, and while I understand its evolution to "clickbait" articles (drives clicks, eyeballs and revenue), I find it disappointing. It seems like their writers stare straight ahead and pick something they see and then write an authoritative article: "Stacking Binders On A Shelf: You're Doing It Wrong And Why The Way You're Stacking Them Is Killing Your Kids And Will Lead You To A Nervous Breakdown."

Aaron Sorkin has a great quote: "While everyone deserves a voice, not everyone deserves a microphone." Twitter and Tumbler and Blogger give everyone a microphone. So talented journalists and websites have to follow suit and create content as quickly as possible and package it as sexily as possible to draw readers. Fine. It's up to the reader to choose not to read, which is particularly difficult when the headline screams "Why This Is The Most Important Blog Post You'll Ever Read".

Update - Some Examples:

Why I Stopped Writing Recommendation Letters For Teach For America - And Why My Colleagues Should Do The Same

If You Send Your Kid To Private School, You Are A Bad Person

We Post Nothing About Our Children Online

Is The NFL's Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign Better For Women, or Just Football?

A Whole Generation Is Missing Out On Great TV Because Of Netflix