Does get me thinking, though... granted, the Internet allows the lightning-speed spread of misinformation, but at least it compensates somewhat by giving the same opportunity to the spread of corrections.

Whereas in pre-Internet days, truth was entirely in the domain of trusted institutions, who were quite content to inform the public for over a decade about how, for example, rock music and role-playing games were going to send their kids to hell. Now, my own theory growing up (not established fact! don't reblog or tweet!) was that Parental Advisory stickers pushed more sales than they prevented and that if Parental Advisory had become a proper label and signed artists it could have easily rivaled Motown at its peak.

But the risk of rumors and fabrications becoming fact has been with us far longer than the Internet; only now the general public can address them and maybe correct them on a more equal footing.

When I was a kid, owning CDs with Parental Advisory logos was a signal that you had cool parents.

> I was halfway through reblogging the reblog of a Rolling Stone story

> In fairness to my fellow writers, I was part of the hype machine. I retweeted the story before I had the chance to fully read it.

I love how the author openly mocks his audience for the trust they place in him.