Those darn bloggers!
Former CBS executive Jonathan Klein talking to Tony Snow just now: "Bloggers have no checks and balances." They are "sitting in their living room in their pajamas."
Hence we can't be trusted - you know, like the mainstream media can <cough>Jayson Blair</cough>.
Sigh.
I covered all this in gory detail way back in February of last year. There are at least three pertinent facts here:
Bloggers are fact checked incessantly by other bloggers and most blogs have a comment feature where a lot of fact checking goes on. And it's done in realtime, unlike any MSM. Reporters for MSM generally have one editor. I have, today alone, 17,000-plus, every one of which is empowered to tell me I screwed something up. In realtime. On my site. Try that with 60 Minutes.
Journalism is a job, not a profession. In fact, I have extensive formal journalism training, and I can tell you that there is no particular skill to it that is particularly difficult or unobtainable by average people.
There is no "accountability" of journalists in any meaningful sense. There is no equivalent of a bar exam for journalists. There is no licensing procedure for journalists. There is no minimum education level required, nor any particular special kind of training at all. Fill out an employment application, get hired at minimum wage or better, and presto, you're a journalist. Or just take a pad and pencil, call some folks on the phone and do some interviews, and you're a journalist, too. Think not? Read on.
by Donald Sensing, 9/10/2004 07:08:04 PM. Permalink |
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