Bloggers Drink the PR Koolaid

I’ve seen many bloggers criticize Old Media for reprinting press releases and otherwise uncritically passing along corporate propaganda. But the TechCrunch PR feeding frenzy on tech.memeorandum today was truly a sight to behold. (My goodness, Gabe, is Memeorandum a meme-tracker or a PR tracker?) The title of Dan Farber’s post, TechCrunch leads Silicon Valley Web renaissance, is emblematic of all the Koolaid that’s been served and eagerly drunk.

It was a party. Everybody had fun. I wish I could have been there.

And yes there have been some half-sober assessments of Bubble 2.0, with apologists arguing that it’s more benign than the last bubble.

What bugs me about this is how hypocritically it jives with the holier-than-Old-Media attitude of some (just some) of the players in blogging and Web 2.0.

Blogging may be empowering, but let’s face it — bloggers are people, just like the people who write for Old Media companies, and they suffer from all the same foibles and temptations.

Let’s not confuse advances in technology with advances in human nature.