Was the pink slime controversy really a “stunning display of social media power,” or just new-fangled risk amplification and a reflection of how bored many are?

The Washington Post, a print media outlet, arrived at the pink slime party yesterday to rehash what’s long ago happened, recycling sound bites in a lousy attempt to offer insight into how public opinion is transformed into beliefs. Worse, the Post provides a compelling reason why newspapers are in decline: no new facts or analysis, nothing new that on-line diggers didn’t discover and display weeks ago.

Social media changes the details, not the basics: one version of ‘ole timey social media was called a lynch mob.

Cue the cute cats video: it will get a lot more hits than pink slime, and way more than sushi slime. But only one, sushi slime, or imported frozen raw Nakaochi Scrape tuna product from a single tuna processing facility in India, has now been linked to 160 confirmed cases of Salmonella Bareilly, up from 141.