This blog is called Glass House; the runner up name was “Truth Shoes” for the saying attributed to Mark Twain – A lie can make it around the world in the time it takes the truth to get its shoes on. And boy, lies and misinformation can spread in an era of 24/7 news cycles faster than Mark could even dream of. But hey, the new influence model, the self correcting nature of blogs, it takes care of that, right? The wikipedians of the world, always on high alert, go out and slay the dragons of disinfo, right? Right??!!! Well, not exactly. See, the thing is that the web, and blogs, and the ability to make movies and sound and all the other multi-media creations that technology allows, that is a sword that cuts two ways. This Salon article about the 9/11 skeptics is a great case study. Think about it – the JFK conspiracy folks took YEARS to gain critical mass (Thanks, Oliver Stone). UFOs? Same thing. Books about the pyramids and the Bermuda triangle vanished with nary a blip, and remained the purview of the crackpot fringe. How compelling are just words? Ah, but mix in a little movie magic, and who knows what is true? Mark it down – some corporation in the next year will fall victim to this sort of budget truth bending video, and a corp comms staff somewhere will stand flabbergasted, wondering how to respond. Hint: get the shoes on now, and get ready to start running. The lie has a big head start, you know.