Mario Lopez Was Smeared. Score One for the Mob

When it comes to writing, I’ve been rather quiet lately, and friends and acquaintances occasionally ask me why. The answer is fairly simple, really: It is because the world of social media is ruining both journalism and public discourse as we speak.

Do you doubt this? Does this seem a bit over-the-top? Let me regale you, then, with the sordid details of the latest would-be online-outrage witch hunt, flagrantly manufactured by people at two major media companies right in front of our very eyes.

The target, at least this time, was affable television personality Mario Lopez. Mr. Lopez, as you might recall, first shot to stardom on the teen sitcom Saved by the Bell. There, he played the hunky high-school rebel dreamboat A. C. Slater, a young man so desirable that NBC would occasionally pipe in an instant recording of a bunch of girls screaming “Wooooooooooo!” when he entered a room.