Love the insights on PUSH. Obviously, I picked up your comment on a “stringer” network since you and I have often spoken about it.

I spent a few minutes cruising around the sight. As you would expect from such an open platform, there are some well, and not so well, written pieces. There are also some very personal takes on news events and, of course, there is ALLOT of content.

It does sort of answer one of the questions you and I have discussed, “Is there a stringer “network” on line?” Sort of. Now Public has positioned itself as an outlet for citizen reporters. Both those stories covered in the print and electronic media and those that aren’t (and can be more an outlet for personal concerns and injustices) are there.

One of the questions that Now Public still doesn’t answer…Is there someone covering those news stories that impact us most but are not “popular” enough to make the six o’clock news? You know the ones…the coverage of the city council meetings, the water board, the utilities board. Once we covered these religiously. Now, not so much. We are far too busy trying to find the local connection to Paris Hilton. Yet these meetings usually result in impacting the local community far more than, from Now Public, “Life, Science and Penguins-Research In Antarctica.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

The other question…How reliable are these stories? Are facts and sources being checked? (Note: I’m not talking about the Penguins anymore.) Is the story reality, fabrication or a combination of the two?

OK, this site isn’t meant to be used as “the” news authority and it does bring those that want to report the news together. However, is it a “stringer” network? If you use the word “stringer” as it has always been understood, a part-time correspondent…no it isn’t.

Now Public is a step in the right direction. But if we are to look to the web to address the need to get news that truly impacts us we need to answer the two remaining questions above.

Thanks again for giving me access to PUSH.