He wasn't entirely wrong. ;-)Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen.
Oh, absolutely. In that particular complaint I believe he was spot on. And it's a powerful complaint. Is the cacophany of disparate (and overwhelmingly ill-informed and unconstructive) opinion that comes with mass democratisation of online comment balanced by the emergence of real online communities? There appears to be general assent that it is, but the trouble is, for every person posting about health care or mass surveillance on Hubski or Reddit (yeah, I know) there's 20 or more others spewing an indigestible rant in the comments field of a major news site.