The Guardian is waiting with bated breath for the release of 24,000 emails by Sarah Palin, at around 6pm our time today. The paper's excitement over the long-awaited witterings of the Tea Party's favourite lady – an admirer of Margaret Thatcher – is astounding. Or maybe not so surprising, given the voyeuristic and nitpicking society we live in.
Sadly, although it has two correspondents "holed up in a Junneau hotel", the Guardian is practically begging for help from its readers to sift through the correspondence:
"…given the size of the cache," it says, "we reckon the collective eyes of thousands of you will find the juicy bits more quickly, so we'll be publishing the raw mails on our website as quickly as we can and asking you to tell us which ones are interesting and why."
"They'll be pretty rough and ready – no headlines or details of what they're about – but we hope you'll help us by using our simple system to tag them according to what subjects they cover, and how interesting they areit says"
Needless to say, the Caledonian Mercury is in no position to send a correspondent to Alaska. However, we welcome any comments on Sarah Palin that any reader wishes to make, first- or second-hand … on the Guardian's website.
Reader participation is always welcome in most media, not least at the Caledonian Mercury. But "finding the juicy bits faster"? This smacks of panic in the face of ferocious competition, or of sheer laziness. The Guardian should rebrand itself the Collective Eye.
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