META: Breaking: Blogger Googling Results In Loud Echo In Bloggosphere

I'm sorry this couldn't be more timely, but I was busy on other matters for most of Wednesday, and when I finally got free, my "google" went down until mid-day Thursday.

If you've ever heard the old adage that, "in the future, we'll all be doing each others' laundry writing each others' blogs", or you believe that "there are two things you don't want to see being made -- sausage and legislation blogs", you may not want to read this post.

On Tuesday 2.6, American Idol aired an audition show from San Antonio. One of the contestants shown on television was Akron Watson. Watson was shown on the air receiving one of the coveted "golden tickets" to Hollywood.

I watched that show and took some notes about it during the broadcast [sadly, I have neither a TiVo (or similar DVR device) nor a VCR (VeeCeeWhaa???)]. After the show, I worked up a blog post about the show.

Inspired by earlier work done by Eric at deathbycamera, I googled several of the contestants looking for MySpace pages, YouTube videos, etc. etc. One of the hits I received was this story on the Pegasus News site about Watson's invitiation to Hollywood having been revoked just days before he was scheduled to leave. As you can see on this page, the story originally appeared online on 1.31. No one -- no one -- had picked up on it before Watson's appearance on the 2.6 airdate of his audition. In my post, I linked to this story [with attribution] and questioned why Watson's ticket had been torn up. My post went up at 10:39 PM PST on 2.6 [1:39 AM EST on 2.7]. [N.B.: The Pegasus News article was updated at 9:17 PM CST (10:17 PM EST) 2.6, after Idol aired in the Eastern and Central time zones and after I had already found and cached the page, to reflect the fact that Idol aired Watson's audition in spite of the fact that he had already been uninvited.]

Puzzled about the lack of corroborating evidence of this story when I was ready to post my report -- I googled again, and found only the updated page [N.B.: my post reflected the updated title of the PN post] -- I began to wonder if this was some internet hoax. I went to bed wondering whether this story was on the level -- What is "Pegasus News"??? Would I have to "update" my blog??? -- or, if it were, when this explosive news would "filter" in to the entertainment websites.

I should not have been so naive.

Dear reader[s], it is at this point that I must refer you to my earlier disclosure. Take a moment to refresh yourself. Back? Okay, let's go...

On Wednesday 2.7, the entertainment bloggosphere was abuzz about the plight of Akron Watson, the contestant from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who had received the "golden ticket" on Tuesday's show but had been uninvited from Hollywood by the AI producers. Here are some representative post times -- and sources -- of some of these posts:

* RealityTVMagazine -- "10:33 PM 2.6" -- PN [note -- RealityTVMagazine.com uses TypePad for their blog; TypePad is centered in San Francisco; TypePad's website does not specify how the post time is determined or what time zone is used as the default time zone; RTVM's post did not appear in my post-post [ha ha!] google search]

[all dates below are Wednesday 2.7]

* TMZ -- 11:30 AM [EST?] -- PN via RTVM

* BestWeekEver -- 1:43 PM [EST?] -- PN via TMZ

* Stereogum -- 5:30 PM [CST?] -- TMZ

* Idolator -- time unknown -- RTVM [note: RTVM "reported this morning"]

* MollyGood -- time unknown -- TMZ

Okay, DHMBIB, we're getting tired of reading. What's your point?

My point is.... It's pretty clear to me that the big, "well-respected" entertainment sites [*cough* bloggers *cough*] RTVM and TMZ got this story the same way I did -- by googling with a search that looked something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22akron+watson%22&btnG=Google+Search

And the other sites [*cough* bloggers *cough*] got their stories by...reading other blogs.... If you regularly read any blogs, you should not be surprised to read that most bloggers' content is merely recycled from other blogs. Trust me -- I'm not hatin' on this method of creating content. Different blogs have different audiences, and the bloggers behind them blog what they blog because they believe their eyeballs meal-tickets readers want to know about this info, regardless whether it is "original news".

Okay, so we all write each others' blogs, and our readers don't want to know that.

[Go back and reread my disclosure.] But I am especially unimpressed with the work of TMZ here, which advertises itself as the "go-to" entertainment news blog:

" Named one of the year's 50 coolest websites by Time magazine [where is the disclosure??? -- Ed.], TMZ -- a joint venture between Telepictures Productions and AOL -- has enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence by breaking [emphasis added -- Ed.] the biggest stories in entertainment. From Mel Gibson's DUI arrest and subsequent encounter with law enforcement to Michael Richards' ill-fated trip to the Laugh Factory to the breakup of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's marriage, TMZ dominates the entertainment news landscape by changing the way the public gets their news. Frequently referenced by the media, TMZ is one of the most-cited entertainment news sources, utilized by national network and local newsgathering organizations across the country. "

I was the second site to have this news online. Please think about that the next time you "learn" something from TMZ, BWE, USMag, etc.

"Timing" is "everything".

Thank you. Drive through.