Craig Newmark of Craig's List fame is not waiting around to merge his company with eBay, as I predicted last year, to throw his hat into the citizen journalism ring. According to Merc bloggers Matt Marshall and Michael Bazely ...
Newmark is intently interested in advancing the citizen journalism movement. Although his plans are still sketchy, he'll likely start with a personal financial investment. But his interest may eventually come to involve craigslist itself.
"As a consumer of news, I've learned that there's too much important stuff which isn't printed or which is distorted on the way out,'' he told us. "One example being news out of the White House. We need to fix it."
"We, meaning the public, need to evolve a trusted institution with lots of fact-checking that we can trust and that we can prove does provide honest news.''
Newmark said his own role would be behind-the-scenes: "I want to help other people do the real work. I'm no news man. I'm not much of a businessman. I'm just one persistent nerd.''
