Social news voting reflects the opinions of the masses. A specialist's authoritative, reasoned opinion is unlikely to be recognized as such, unless it happens t

Social news voting reflects the opinions of the masses. A specialist's authoritative, reasoned opinion is unlikely to be recognized as such, unless it happens to go along with the momentum of public opinion. It's hardly a problem unique to social news -- see Wikipedia, general elections, cable news commentary, prediction market failures, etc. When everyone's vote counts the same, the most popular opinion wins.