Does the internet mean we are too quick to judge?
Does the internet mean we are too quick to judge? This is the question that will be shortly posed to a global audience on the BBC World Service programme 'World Have Your Say' and Nigel Morgan of Morgan PR has been invited on to the show as a guest.
The saga of Shirley Sherrod and the knee-jerk condemnation of her by so-called friends and enemies alike after a video clip surfaced that appeared to show her being racist. As all too often happens it turned out to be out of context and she has been exonerated. The World Have Your Say blog on this does a neat job exploring some of the more outrageous examples of internet rumours and tonight's show at 1805 will be exploring this premise with three main guests.
No doubt there will be a lively debate on how easy it is to publish anything online whether it is true or not. I'm told it encourages lively debate among the guests and we are expected to fend for ourselves to a certain extent.
The power of the internet to get you noticed has been demonstrated by this invite! The researcher who contacted me had been reading a blog on Ant Hodges website about the Rent a Friend story, Ant is a fellow member of The Social Media Guys and from a link to our website she followed on to this blog and spotted our article defending Facebook's right to publish a tribute page to Raoul Moat.
Do check out World Have Your Say on Facebook, on Twitter they are @BBC_WHYS and the World Have Your Say blog has some lively debate on it too.
It is an interesting thought that I am just as likely, if not more likely, to have listeners in Bahrain or Baghdad as I am in Berkshire!
STOP PRESS - Guardian columnist Michael Tomasky has been confirmed as the second guest on tonight's show.