It was bloggers who forced CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather into early retirement, and yet CBS – at least somebody there – is still being condescending towards the new media.

Though M2Z Networks threatened to take to the FCC to court to force a decision on the company’s "family friendly" free nationwide wireless broadband proposal by September 1, a likely "no" vote from the commission has made M2Z decide more public debate is necessary.

The problem with open societies, free speech, and Web 2.0 is that any ol’ jerk can believe and say anything they want. That you’d rather they didn’t is kind of your problem. But it’s a bigger problem for larger entities like YouTube and Google who provide the platform, or, since Microsoft’s not using it, the soapbox for the jerks to stand upon.

I’ve been pondering my stance on Digg recently. When I saw Christian Mezei’s Unofficial FAQ regarding the Digg algorithm, I began to ponder the entire concept of social media, especially given the recent controversy surrounding which content makes the front page, and which gets buried.

Tribe.net founder Mark Pincus went to Harvard Business School, not journalism school. This may have been the primary reason he was unsure if using a person’s full name to recount a sordid history was really a violation of privacy, like Typepad told him.