I haven’t stopped by Newsvine lately. It is an interesting concept and I was in early as a beta tester. I decided it was worth a try today as I actually felt like I had something to say as I watched the mourning for Gerald R. Ford, a man I had actually met a number of times.

I have to say I am impressed by the growth and the interactivity of the medium. It really got me thinking about some things tonight. I remember meeting Swift Lathers as a young lad. He published the Mears Newz, the smallest newspaper in the world — or so he claimed. I’m pretty sure it did not have the smallest circulation, but it was small in physical size. All of the articles about the paper claim that he once cut the circulation in half by using a pair of scissors. My father knew him and his family quite well at the time and I don’t think this story is true because he in fact had the circulation list committed to memory.

I got to thinking how many Swift Lather’s now exist. People with a message to spread and now — unlike people of his time — a cost effective way to spread it. What would someone like him be doing with today’s medium of communication? I’ll bet a lot of people would not like the answer. He was a blogger before his time.

This article was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 5:23 am