MeFi imitates news, or news imitates MeFi

May 11, 2004 1:54 PM

MeFi imitates news, or news imitates MeFi. Yesterday's post about Prison abuse is paralleled by PRI's To The Point's coverage of prison abuse here in America. RA link.
posted by eperker to MetaFilter-Related at 1:54 PM (4 comments total)

I've listened to episodes of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me where upwards of half the questions related back to issues or stories I'd read about on MeFi the week before. Zeitgeist or cribbing: I dunno (though one or more of the regulars supposedly does read the site. Hi Adam!).

On this particular parallel, stories on abuse in American prisons turn up fairly often on public radio and on MeFi. Bringing it up in light of the Iraq revelations seems a natural for both platforms.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:02 PM on May 11, 2004

It takes a long time to produce a news show on a particular topic; this isn't something that can get thrown together in a day.
posted by PrinceValium at 8:13 AM on May 12, 2004

Curse you Warren Oln..Uln...Al... Beatty!!!
posted by Hildago at 9:54 AM on May 12, 2004

I think this is the example that belies the rule :

Sometimes this stuff is floating around in the immediate temporal Zeitgeist, but Public Radio clearly scoops a fair amount of material off the web and off Metafilter.

Partly, I suspect, as a strategy to appeal to a young, hip, upwardly mobile demographic and partly out of laziness.

And they will also deny this 'till the cows come home and are turned into steaks, eaten, excreted, and that shit turns back into fertilizer for corn to feed new cows. How long is that ?....3 to 5 years ?
posted by troutfishing at 12:41 PM on May 12, 2004