When The Washington Post and the New Yorker and the BBC are sourcing their big stories from Reddit -- that is when I'd be alarmed.
Just because they aren't grabbing stuff straight from Reddit (or hell, maybe they are, who knows?) doesn't mean Reddit doesn't influence those outlets as well. Look at Ryan Holiday's book[1] where he talks about "trading up the chain" and how lower tier sources influence the ones just above them, who influence the ones above them, etc. It seems like it's fairly possible for something to go from reddit -> minor blog -> major blog -> small local tv station -> AP wire -> Washington Post, or something similar.
Throw something on Reddit, buy a few upvotes, selectively support it with some bogus Wikipedia edits (sure, they'll be reverted eventually, but probably not until the damage is done) and submit yourself to "help" some journalists on HARO or Pitchrate and you can wreak all sorts of havoc on the news media.
Just because they aren't grabbing stuff straight from Reddit (or hell, maybe they are, who knows?) doesn't mean Reddit doesn't influence those outlets as well. Look at Ryan Holiday's book[1] where he talks about "trading up the chain" and how lower tier sources influence the ones just above them, who influence the ones above them, etc. It seems like it's fairly possible for something to go from reddit -> minor blog -> major blog -> small local tv station -> AP wire -> Washington Post, or something similar.
Throw something on Reddit, buy a few upvotes, selectively support it with some bogus Wikipedia edits (sure, they'll be reverted eventually, but probably not until the damage is done) and submit yourself to "help" some journalists on HARO or Pitchrate and you can wreak all sorts of havoc on the news media.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_Me,_I%27m_Lying