Here’s an interesting meta-personal media moment: Google News recently announced that it’s allowing comments to news stories from the people mentioned in the stories Google publishes. If you envision some serious smackdowns, you’re right. Lots of spots, including SMITH, allow anyone (who proves he or she’s not spam) to respond to a story. Exhibit D: Followers of our webcomic, A.D., took in a recent exchange between a reader who questioned if one of the characters would actually use the language Josh Neufeld attributed to her and the character herself. Here’s a snippet:

Dean Haspiel: A.D. continues to amaze … My only criticism is with the last panel when the woman screams “I’m gonna die in this bitch!” It felt forced and took me out of the drama.

Denise: That woman is me, and that is exactly what I was thinking at that moment and for many, many moments during the hurricane. I was terrified, and that was my expression of terror, not false bravado.

That’s an excerpt from a longer (scroll down to “comments” area below the panels), really interesting exchange between Dean and Denise, reader and webcomic character (and indeed real person). Pretty cool, huh? And perhaps it’s the future of journalism.