What does eBay and the NBC show Ed have in common? Not much, usually, but they do this week.

On this past week's episode of Ed, Carol got sued by a restaurant owner who said she purposefully wrote a bad review in revenge for something that happened in high school. Today, eBay got sued for refusing to remove negative feedback. The cases aren't exactly the same- eBay already warns feedback posters that they could be sued if they post in a libelous manner- but they have the same question at heart.

Both of these (though the lawsuit more than the TV show) serve to remind us of the power that words still have. In some ways the Internet devalued the written word, becoming less the information super-highway than the grafitti on that highway's restroom walls. The threshold for getting what you've written on to the Internet is so low- hello, blogging!- that the quality, not to mention the thoughfulness, can suffer. Not that anything here's ever been an example of such a process. Of course not.

And, truth be told, in some ways it's a good thing. The ability for an individual to create their own content, and not have to worry that an editor, moderator, or other outside influence will interfere with it, makes this medium dynamic, democratic, and open for the user to interpret. Assuming people can slog through even a fraction of what's out there.

But there has been, at least in my mind, a cheapening of words and effect. I don't know if its the immediacy of the medium or not having to look at a person face-to-face, but it seems much easier for anyone to take a vociferously extreme position on anything, be it politically charged or sales feedback.

It's not like this hasn't been said before, and by someone who wrote with more care and skill than I. It's just that the juxtaposition of the show and the story got me thinking.

And to close the circle (as I like to do), you'll soon get to watch eBay on TV. Which means we can look for the lawsuit related to feedback on the program at some point (OK, probably not, but it's a nice reference back to Ed).