Rowe be shillin'

When it comes to boosterism, there is none better than the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record. When they recognize a rising tide of interest for an endeavor, when the press releases start coming from the right people, the N&R puts aside objectivity, sidelines the facts, and casts its reporters in the role of promoters. As an alt weekly editor friend of mine might say, they become positively whorish.

You might think since I'm all for this Google ultra high speed internet initiative, I'd be pleased with the local paper becoming a propagandist. Nope. Not when it comes at the expense of sidelining a part of the grassroots community support Google is looking for and covering up shortcomings in the official paid-for effort on the web.

In his article today, N&R columnist Jerri Rowe writes this:

"Our city launched the site Friday, and on Monday, it began asking the creative among us to upload video clips and write blog posts..."

True. The city's site blog does ask for that kind of participation. Did Rowe bother to notice whether submitting that kind of content is feasible? Because it's not. There is a link to an empty YouTube channel, with no ID or password offered for uploading. There is no facility to make a blog post. So yeah, the city asks us to upload videos and make blog posts -- and Rowe neglects to report we cannot.

What's strange though is that, while promoting the City's official web site as doing things it doesn't, Rowe ignores Google4GSO.com, a conduit to, well, blog posts and YouTube videos by the people of Greensboro on the subject of bringing  Google here. And it's not empty. It's grassroots. It's genuine and I suspect Google would get a kick out of it, even if it doesn't have the stamp of approval of the right people.