Journalism on Amazon?

When first approaching the reviews on Amazon.com I had a predetermined idea that there would in no way be any form of journalism. But...I found myself slightly in the wrong when reading reviews on a book by John Stossel called Myths, Lies, And Downright Stupidity Get Out The Shovel- Why Everything You Know Is Wrong


Aside from the usual..."read this book" comments there were other interesting facts that readers received from the book and were willing to share in their comments.

The fact that New York City tap water beat out EVIAN should really make the world feel NAIVE (EVIAN backwards) about making their product the number one bottled water. Particularly since a chemical analysis showed the water was no more pure or healthy than what came out of the NYC pipes.

I had no idea that that was true and I live in New York!

Other reviews although not spitting out information I was not aware of are sharing legitimate info that is not just opinion based. For example:

What he got wrong: Case in Point A ("scientifically clueless"): Stossel references The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy (2005) by Peter W. Huber and Mark P. Mills to claim that tar sands in Alberta, Canada "alone contain enough oil to meet our needs for a hundred years." What he doesn't mention is that extracting that oil is currently not cost-effective, and when it is, it will require not only massive amounts of water (which will by then be perhaps a more fought-over commodity than oil) but will pretty much destroy the surrounding environment, which will be more valuable than the oil!

This person read the book and is establishing the fact that it isn't completely right. Then voicing more truth to go along with the information within the book.

This to me is journalism because the reviewers are passing along truthful information they have gained from reading this particular book as well as outside information they have gained from other resources.