You know how early on in cheesy sci fi movies they would casually show a small article in the newspaper like “Explosion on Mars Surprises Scientists” that foreshadows the disaster that is about to impend? A couple of days ago, I saw a headline like that: Reuters wants to become a front line news source, rather than simply having its content used by other newspapers. (I tried to find the article today but try searching on “Reuters” at Google News.)

So, imagine that we — you and me, sister — have access to this miscellanized news content. Who needs the NY Times editorial judgment to tell us what’s important when we can filter it for one another? Or let me get a mix filtered by the NY Times’ judgment with a heavy dose of the interests of Ethan Zuckerman, Rebecca MacKinnon, AKMA, The Kenyan Pundit, Zephyr Teachout and Susan Crawford. Then throw in the stories that have caught the eye of The Daily Show staff writers, Michael Moore, Andrew Sullivan, Ken Mehlman, Powerline, Isaac Mao and Esther Dyson’s mailing list…just for starters.

It’s not just, as Dan Gillmor famously says, “My readers know more than I do.” We readers, clumped into knots of interest, also are better judges of what matters to us. Put that together with an explosion on Mars, and you’ve got the fleet of flying saucers just about to enter our atmosphere. (Early saucer sightings: Rojo and NewsILike.com [Technorati tags: reuters media]

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