Jason DeRusha vs. Don Shelby: Blog fight!

Photo: Rick

Don Shelby and Jason DeRusha pass the ham

A ham sandwich has come between WCCO's Good Question-man Jason DeRusha and anchorman Don Shelby. Shelby scorned social media during a broadcast for being little more than a lunchtime gossip tool. DeRusha took to his blog to say, more or less, that's exactly the point.

What lends fresh air to a stale argument, of course, is that these guys are colleagues sparring in the public eye. Shelby's retiring from the station in November; DeRusha, CP's Best Tweeter for 2010, is the station's King Of All (social) Media.

Shelby:

"Where once the hope [of the Internet] was the most informed population since time began, we are being drawn to messages like, "I'm eating a ham sandwich right now," and "Going to a movie tonight. You?"

DeRusha:

To imply that the conversation in online social spheres is more vacuous and more stupid than the conversation in offline social spheres is just plain wrong.

That's right. Vacuous 'R' Us.

Shelby:

Social networking is either the greatest coming together of society ever, or the biggest waste of time ever invented.

DeRusha:

What about the protests in Iran that happened largely over Twitter? The U of M has been researching whether kids on Facebook are more inclined to click on news stories, becoming more informed than non-social networkers.

Wait, you mean it could actually be fun and useful. Where do we sign up?

And now back to your regularly scheduled ham sandwich ...