Having been an avid net user since the early 90s, I can’t think of a time where that assertion wasn’t specious. In 2005— the year Gmail debuted and people stated using the term “web 2.0”— most of the content on the net was still from traditional media sources— PR garbage and all. Most blogs were still people just rattling off their opinions which was more likely based on the available content than their own high-quality research. And lack of oversight is a double-edged sword: sure you might have been less likely to get pure unfiltered marketing dreck but you were way more likely to get straight-up bullshit, which is a different, but serious problem. I think he was trying to champion the idealistic anti-establishment soul from the early net despite it essentially being an anachronism, even in 2005.