I was reading a recent post by Andy Baio on the proliferation of what he calls "supercuts" or video montages made by obsessive fans of their favourite TV shows, films or video games - and he lists quite a few classics.

What's interesting is how easily I see this format transferring into both the political and corporate arena by organizations and individuals seeking to capture a litany of "promises" or statements made by elected officials or corporate spokespersons either to demonstrate support for or, more likely as in the case of this famous "flip-flop" video of John McCain (courtesy of Jeff Jarvis), highlight more negative behaviours.

As more and more "gotcha" moments are captured on film or audio and shared throughout the social web (here's a recent, and extremely powerful, example) , the implication on corporate, political and personal reputation is significant. The aggregation of incidents such as these over time coupled with the permanence and searchability of the web, could become a significantly damaging force in times of crisis, and when organizations (and their reputations) are under the spotlight.

Nor is this "syndrome" restricted solely to the social web. Increasingly, mainstream media are collecting and presenting lists of "related" stories around organizations and issues that often - through selective aggregation - portray that organization in a negative light - typically highlighting recent stories of past tragedies, crashes, blow-outs etc., or other failings that have hit the media (case in point).

And the risk of reputation damage becomes even more acute when these clips and stories are aggregated without context, or with the intent to portray a specific bias, further propagating this culture of misinformation within which we increasingly exist.

For those charged to defend an organization's reputation, it won't be enough to simply cry out: Noooooooooo!