I only know Walt Crawford through his left-leaning repartees at LISNews and musings at Cites & Insights. He seems an affable fellow, at least up in until this article, and is apparently regarded among many library types as something of an aficionado of technology trends. As a former systems librarian I enjoy Walt's "techy" talk at Cites & Insights but when meandering off the geek reservation, at least in this case, “What constitutes ‘information’?” by Michael Nellis he's got it wrong.

Walt's piece at first glance seems rather innocuous. An invitation to consider Michael Nellis', aka Fang Face, self-inventory for the habitual truth tweaker.

But the point of the discussion is the opening line. Nellis talks about “information” as “an accurate reflection of reality” [emphasis mine]—then goes on to look at belief systems, facts, disinformation, misinformation, and opinion. People get into trouble when they regard their opinions as facts and when they add disinformation to the mix.

Ironically this is followed by a third and final paragraph of Walt warning those interested in reading more to be aware of Fang's propensity to adorn his conjecture about belief systems and opinion with his own ...strongly stated political opinions. Bush supporters may take a pass as well.

So why mention me? Walt could have just as easily made his point, or Fang's, without drawing myself in his story.

I can only assume it has some connection to the inference taken in my exchange with Fang that there is an "information resource hierarchy". Perhaps too my beliefs that not all information "seeks to be free" and that it merits the recognition and legal protections of any other commodity. That Fang's information weltanschauung of cherry picked and pruned "progressive journalism", free to the plucker, somehow deserves equivalency with the pricey LexisNexis and its 5600 national publications is nonsense.

This librarian says there is a difference.

Surprisingly Walt doesn't offer a forthright opinion about which, AlterNet or LexisNexis, is the better information source. No mention of bias, editorial philosophies, mission statements, non-profit funding sources or workable solutions to aggravating problems as they may happen to skew a reflection of reality. Instead, he leaves me and my LexisNexis to hang in the first paragraph to make over Fang's self-righteous ruminations. He ends the paragraph with Fang's observation that, People get into trouble when they regard their opinions as facts and when they add disinformation to the mix.

And I shouldn't regard this as subtle shot?

Taken from the AlterNet mission statement:

The media marketplace is increasingly dominated by commercial messages, or focused on entertainment at the expense of insightful information. The results of this trend are large gaps in news coverage and diminished public confidence in the media. Although thousands of issue-oriented websites offer outstanding public interest content, too many remain hidden to experienced researchers and casual Internet users.

Without qualified editors [emphasis mine] to evaluate material and make it easier for users to find and act upon it, the public interest information people want and need will continue to be marginalized. By publishing grassroots success stories and inspirational narratives alongside hard-hitting critiques of policies, investigative reports and expert analysis, we emphasize workable solutions to aggravating problems.

Another nugget of irony giving proof that the word "shame" is not a part of the liberal lexicon.

Check out the chorus of leading progressive voices we've brought together in our new book examining the lessons of election 2004. Fight Fox!

Keep in mind, we are working with Fang's benchmark of "reflection of reality" which obviously includes a good romp with a Fox hunt.

In stark contrast, LexisNexis offers no mission statement, editorial selection committee or moral imperative, but rather channels their resources to provide breadth and diversity rather than to parse and print. What follows is a true "reflection of reality". But Walt should know this.

Walt should also know that reality represents the totality of real things and events, something anathema to AlterNet's altered reality making. Lastly he should also know that his, Fang's and my prejudices can only be found in one of the two information resources discussed here. Here is where we test the "reflection of reality".

There is no question, LexisNexis is a bonafide information resource. AlterNet, pureed polemic for the armchair researcher.