"blogs have introduced journalists to the wonderful concept
known as “the real world,” where business models or scientific
hypotheses have to be backed up by proof after top-to-bottom critique"
Blogs = poop at MSM conference
Rathergate.com
For all the whining that the mainstream press does about the blogosphere’s professionalism, you’d figure that a journalism conference on bloggers and journalism would reflect class and good taste.
Well, no — speakers at a Wednesday morning conference on journalism and blogging spent their first hours comparing the blogs to poop.
Yeah, you heard me, poop. From Editor & Publisher’s coverage of its Interactive Media Conference that started Wednesday in New Orleans:
<<<
The Editor & Publisher/Mediaweek Interactive Media Conference kicked off in New Orleans Wednesday morning, and many speakers at the first panel discussion (on journalism and blogging) seized the opportunity to make light of the blogosphere by using scatological references that played on the word blog. (That is, it sounds like something emanating from a bathroom on Bourbon Street.)
Fratboy humor is, of course, one way to conceal the mainstream media’s nervousness about the exploding popularity of blogs. “We’re not in control, and we don’t know it yet,” said panelist Ken Sands, online publisher of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.
>>>
Great way to tackle the MSM’s blogosphere-enhanced credibility crisis, guys. How are those newspaper circulation numbers now?
I am glad to see that the piece’s author, associate editor Jennifer Saba, did not appear amused and led off with the mainstream media’s professional antics.
Saba covered a morning session debating whether newspapers should be “dabbling in the blogopshpere,” and what rules they should follow if they start their own blogs.
One of the few voices of reason apparently was Nick Denton, the publisher of Gawker Media, a blog company that backs several popular blogs. He is not keen on newspapers starting blogs because they “don’t do blogs very well,” but stated that newspapers need to stop looking at them as a threat.
<<<
“I don’t understand why newspapers are so scared,” he said. “It’s been presented as a battle to the death, like Israel and Palestine. But it’s more like the United States and Canada.”
>>>
No offense to Denton, but from my point of view it’s rather obvious why newspapers are so scared of bloggers. Look at how angry the mainstream press is that they now that their work can be immediately and seriously critiqued. Look at how angry they are that bad journalism can be immediately and publicly caught, rather than buried in a correction, or never corrected altogether.
They’re mad that Dan Rather’s fake memos got exposed — after all, “everyone” knows (in the newsroom, that is) that President Bush was guilty as charged. They’re mad that the public can now say “prove it” when an Eason Jordan or a Linda Foley accuse U.S. troops of killing journalists — after all, “everyone” knows (in the newsroom, that is) that the military hunts journalists for sport.
In other words, blogs have introduced journalists to the
wonderful concept known as “the real world,” where business
models or scientific hypotheses have to be backed up by proof
after top-to-bottom critique. Apparently, journalists these
days think they should be automatically trusted and exempt
from criticism, and the blogosphere has proven to be a much-
needed wake-up call.
“Trust me, I’m a reporter” is dead. And that’s the way it should be. If you write a news story, and it doesn’t stand up to legitimate criticism, it’s called “wrong” or “biased.” It’s always been that way, but the blogosphere now provides Americans with an instant and very public way to say it.
If you’re a reporter and the idea of your work being critiqued so offends you that your sole reaction is to compare your critics to feces, find another line of work. Stop crying and do good, balanced, responsible journalism — if you can’t handle it when an Internet pundit points out your selective choice of sources and facts, then quit.
I never get tired of making fun of a clueless MSM bray about the blogs, but I am getting tired of hearing them do it.
UPDATE: Just a thought — I’ve never heard of a blog being used to housebreak a dog or line a bird cage. We all know what medium is used for those scatological functions.
rathergate.com
editorandpublisher.com
rathergate.com |
