...at least that's what Andrew Keen seems to be arguing in his new book The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture.

I don't have a lot of patience for this viewpoint. Win your argument on the merits, don't attack the platform.

Of course we need professional media. We also need amateur fact-checkers. Andrew Keen seems to be arguing that all bloggers are inaccurate and untrustworthy. There are bloggers like that. They rant their version of reality regardless of the facts. Their readers are there to get their biases reinforced or their egos stroked.

But the important bloggers - those who change minds - try to be accurate. That's why people read them and link to them.

UPDATE:

Don't miss Keen's hysterical response to Web 2.0. It will destroy civilization!

UPDATE 2:

Here's a speech Andrew Keen gave to Google:

In this speech he admits he's an old media idealist. He is nostalgic for the good ol' days where an elite held the stage and the unwashed masses heard only what the elites thought they needed to hear. Keen argues that if we do away with that old system and its middle-men in favor of Web 2.0/blogs, then that's a bad thing. This is a complete stawman. Of course we need professional media. Does anyone expect blogs to put the pros out of business? I certainly don't.

He then argues that Web 2.0 is especially vulnerable to charlatans - anonymous bloggers that are responsible for some of the most vulgar and "distressing" parts of the Internet. He states, correctly, that talent is a limited resource and that "a media without gatekeepers is by definition untrustworthy."

Obviously Keen has no idea how the blogosphere and related concepts like Digg work. There are gatekeepers. The Instapundit Glenn Reynolds is a big one. The Speculist also drives traffic to other blogs that we find interesting. A truth-challenged talentless hack just doesn't get linked, or dugg, or whatever. When lessor bloggers manage to get attention, it's short-term. They just can't hold an audience in this competitive environment. They don't get read.