Mickey Kaus:
FisbhowlDC asks:
Why can't both sides just understand that one wouldn't be nearly as effective without the other, and that blogging--despite how much fun it is--would be nowhere without the "mainstream" reporters who, actually, manage to get most of their stories correct (albeit without necessarily agreeing with your particular viewpoint)?
That's the usual symbiotic template--reporters report, bloggers opine. But on the Eason Jordan story, bloggers like Abovitz, Sisyphean Musings and Michelle Malkin did actual reporting, while the New York Times kind of just sat there for two weeks, no? ... Of course, when it was all over the Times did deploy three reporters who managed to a) mislead readers as to Jeff Jarvis' stance and b) raise fears about the "growing power of rampant, unedited dialogue."
Makes you wonder sometimes who the drooling morons are.
Kind of makes you wonder when they are going to ask for subsidies and protective tariffs.
Nothing to see here folks, just a slight whiff of terror coming from the Press Club.
fears about the "growing power of rampant, unedited dialogue."
They're afraid of free speech?
No, you don't have to wonder who the drooling morons are for long. Just read.
The blogs DO need the conventional media. To me the blogs help cull and fact-check and interpret the major (paid) press. I now use the blogs primarily to point me to things in the major media around the world that I would otherwise miss. But usually these stories are first reported in the convential press -- now as in the case of Rathergate, there may be something that they unintentionally dig up that they didn't know about (like FORGED documents).
To say that the blogs are not edited or fact-checked is incorrect. We are all the editors and fact-checkers. Just try to post something questionable and you'll be discredited in 2 seconds by someone you've never met halfway around the world who just became your editor as soon as he read your post. The difference is, on the blog, the editing is in real-time and continuous.
Note also that the format reporters adhere to imposes extreme, and in the internet age, ridiculous space and time limitations that necessarily excise from their purview most of what is important to their readers.
Oh we see exactly who they are. Cristal.
