[WikiEN-l] Ken Lay's death prompts confusion on Reuters

[Fred Bauder]

On Jul 5, 2006, at 10:06 PM, Jesse W wrote:

> On Jul 5, 2006, at 8:39 PM, Fred Bauder wrote:
>
>> On Jul 5, 2006, at 8:48 PM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
>>
>>> On 7/5/06, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at ctelco.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Alexa shows CNN dropping like a lead balloon, No. 38 today (they  
>>>> are
>>>> ranked 27). Perhaps they welcome a dig at the competition. BTW  
>>>> we are
>>>> even with Amazon these days.
>>>>
>>> Alexa's numbers are inconsistent. Don't count on them for anything.
>>>
>> There certainly are some strange phenomena but there is a pattern.
>> There is a generational change with canned goods going down and
>> participatory sites going up.
>>
> CNN *is not* our competition!  Not even of Wikinews!  We are  
> *tertiary*
> sources, i.e. we summarize and coordinate what secondary sources make
> of actual facts on the ground (i.e. primary sources).  We'd be
> impoverished and in trouble without CNN, the Stanford Encyclopedia of
> Philosophy and all the rest of the "mainstream media" - We Don't Have
> The Money To Pay Reporters - and even if we did, that's not our
> purpose.
>
> Jesse Weinstein

We are, in a sense, parasitic on them and other original content  
providers. But they provide no significant opportunity for  
participatory input. Besides, they don't cover Pokeman nearly as well  
as we do.

Fred