Here we have another one of those overwrought attacks on the Net.

This time the Online Journalism Review blames our polarization on the Internet, claiming an "echo chamber" effect.

People like Matt Glaser, who wrote this story, should be forced to endure Journalism History 101. And if he's out there, I'll teach it to him. (Our illustration comes from this wonderful Montauk history page.)

If there is an "echo chamber" it is created, not by the narrowcasting of Web sites, but by the mass media. While it would be controversial for me to point out the present War in Iraq in this regard, let's go back to 1898, and the Spanish-American war.

Like today's conflict, the Spanish-American War was sold, by the mass media, as a cakewalk.

The 9-11 of that time was the destruction of the battleship Maine, at anchor in Havana. The Hearst papers insisted it was done by the Spanish. In fact it's now generally accepted the incident was an accident.

But the mass media insisted, and President McKinley was dragged into war. Teddy Roosevelt and his men charged up San Juan Hill, and when the smoke cleared Spain was out of the colonization business, while we were in it. That little affair a few years later in the Phillippines hardly deserves mention.

The lesson is that when the mass media lies, Americans will follow it anywhere.

Don't blame the bloggers. Sure, some lie. Sure, some propagandize. But we have a lot more to fear from our mass media in that regard than from this class media.