Say what you will about the mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.
We can’t silence them [bloggers], but for civilization’s sake and the integrity of information by which we all live or die, we can and should ignore them.
Have at it.
Jealousy is an ugly emotion Kathleen
We're just doing the jobs the journalists don't want to do.
And Dan Rather and Mary Mapes of See-BS, and Jayson Blair and Howell Raines at the NYT are great examples of this? Not to mention the NYT editing a dead Marine's posthumous e-mail home to his girl to fit their bias? Pshaw!
From the article, I'd change your substitution to "We can't silence them [egogratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction], but for civilization's sake and the integrity of information by which we all live or die, we can and should ignore them."
Fortunately, what the author advicates happens naturally, as most readers DO dismiss the snarks, sasses and twits. And so, the force of cross checking and citaton holds both the legacy media and the new media accountable for accuracy of fact, and intellectual honesty in analysis. Everybody wins!
The overall impression I have with this article is that the author feels blogs are putting journalists under a very powerful microscope and she doesn't like it. However, examples of blatantly bad journalism from people like Dan Rather, who have a reputation of being at the top of their field and at the pinnacles of their careers, shows the bias this author really has. I sense journalist frustration with the intense scutiny of the blogs as legitimate. No one wants their job to be under that level of scutiny, nor will any professional, regardless of their field, ever be error free. A true professional should take such criticism in stride and endeavor to correct his mistakes and improve their trade. Complaining about being 'caught' in a mistake is not a professional response, but an emotional outburst. With that in mind, if a journalists corrects their mistake, then a professional blog that spotted this mistake has the responsibility to acknowledge that correction. Overall, I hope that the dynamics of the blogs helps both evolve to higher standards.
This is from scrappleface, right?
Stumble? As in revealing national security measures being used to keep the American people safe?
Stumble? As in revealing to the enemy the existance of prisons where the most dangerous terrorists are being held so the terrorists can mount attacks against the countries that are holding them?
I have not found this to be the case. Neither with the MSM nor with my limited, but personal, experience with the local media.
For your information, Cathy dear: The Media that survive in the age of bloggers, will be those who print the unvarnished and unspun, truth.
How dare we of the bloggosphere throw stones at the almighty journalists of Mount Olympus?
===
[That is what the MSM 'journalists' seem to think. They don't like being challenged -- by the Pajama Brigade sitting in from of our computers. They don't like being questioned about the accuracy of their reporting. They don't like being called to task when their reporting is so overtly biased. After all, as ole Dan cried: It is fake, but accurate!!!]
I just performed a Google search on the subject and found over 116,000,000 blogs out there. They range in interest from personal, cooking, gardening, pet care, weather and political commentary. Using key words like "breaking news" and "news + blogging + links" I located over 32 Million Blogging Sites in cyberspace. Thank God for bloggers.
We are bloggers, hear us roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And we know too much to go back an' pretend
'cause we've heard it all before
And we've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep us down again
CHORUS
Oh yes we am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, we've paid the price
But look how much we gained
If we have to, we can do anything
We are strong (strong)
We are invincible (invincible)
We are bloggers
I thought that she had more sense than to write something so inane.
Get over it, Mz. Parker.
And FR is not a "blog". It's a forum.
And get that STUPID SMIRK off your face.
'Bereft of adult supervion', huh. And the old media wonders why their readership is leaving in droves. That 'adult supervision' always seems to bring it's biases to the table, and vociferous protestations to the contrary may be safely ignored.
If one wants left-wing spin- there's no need to pay money for it.
Say what you will about the mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.
'Getting it right' and 'better serving its communities', judging by the end product, usually seems to consist of attacking worthwhile things that Americans cherish, and parroting Democratic Party talking points. Take almost any article concerning any hot-button political issue- and it will be full of half-truths, bad research and Lefty spin. Especially egregious examples of this are any article having to do with firearms.
One needs only some critical thinking skills and the ability to do some verification homework. On this one forum alone- it isn't unusual that we'll have a poster or two who can look out the window and see whatever newsworthy event is taking place, and report their observations. Since the poster/correspondant is someone that we probably already know, we can make an informed assessment of the validity of the report.
Jayson Blair wasn't the problem- he was a symptom. You old media people -with your demonstrated arrogance- have dropped the ball. The days of the greats, the Edward R. Murrows' and Ernie Pyles, who were Americans first and Journalists second, are long gone. You want to 'better serve your communities'?
-Dump the social engineering. It isn't your job. Your job is to report news. Do that.
-Getting it right' means, well, actually getting it right. Do the homework.
-Opinion belongs on the op /ed page- not subtly woven into the piece. This may surprise you people, but when your photographer goes to a press conference and takes five hundred pictures of George Bush with an autowinder, and you pore over the contact sheets looking for the one where he has a stupid look on his face because he is about to sneeze and you run that picture, you make a political statement. We 'unsupervised children' aren't so stupid that it isn't obvious to us. And you bleat about how impartial you are.
-In any particular area of expertise, a segment of your readership will know a lot more than you do. Write as if you were actually accountable for the accuracy of the product.
People who constantly extoll the worth of the free flow of information, carping and complaining that the flow of information now bypasses their 'gatekeeper' role. It's 'free-er' now. What's wrong with that?
I am none of the listed. Please ignore any post I might make or opinion I might hold.
Being just a work-a-day Johnnie, I am not fit to live.
LOL LOL!!1!!1! j00 5ux0rrs!1! A11 teh crEd. R belong t0 uS!!1!1! Bwahahahahaha!
Shes "concerned" because blogs have exposed the Emperors nudity..