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  From: <rhadda@gmail.com>
  To  : <cpc@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 16:15:31 -0700

Slate Article: Bloggers Freer Than Reporters?

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<http://c.msn.com/c.gif?NA=3D1132&NC=3D1262&DI=3D4098&PI=3D7315&PS=3D6173=
6> press
box
Bloggers Freer Than Reporters?
And vice versa.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Friday, April 8, 2005, at 8:29 PM PT



Not that long ago, you had to be a professional reporter to publish
defective copy. Not any more. Thanks to blogs, the journalist monopoly
on the wide-scale propagation of blunders, boo-boos, and bloopers has
vanished. Now, complete amateurs can embarrass themselves before huge
audiences.

Bloggers demonstrated their skill at botching a story last month when a
swarm of them accused the Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49701-2005Mar19.html>;
and ABC News
<http://64.233.161.104/search?q=3Dcache:KGs-bcV4k2AJ:abcnews.go.com/Polit=
i
cs/Schiavo/story%3Fid%3D600937+%2522GOP+Talking+Points+on+Terri+Schiavo%
2522+&hl=3Den>  of journalistic malpractice. The two news organizations
had reported on the existence of a GOP talking-points memo about Terri
Schiavo. The bloggers asserted it was a Ratherian fake. As Eric Boehlert
details in Salon
<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/08/schiavo_memo/print.html>; ,
the nay-saying blogs consumed terabytes of bandwidth denouncing the Post
and ABC. Powerline
<http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2005_03.php#009955> , Michelle Malkin
<http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001838.htm>; , the American
Spectator's Prowler
<http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=3D7935> , PoliPundit
<http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=3D6941> , and Accuracy in Media
<http://www.aim.org/press_release/2806_0_19_0_C/>;  led the charge.

After the Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32554-2005Apr6.html>;
and others proved the legitimacy of the document on April 7, bloggers
proved themselves the equals of their mainstream media colleagues once
more by ignoring or glossing over their goof. Boehlert writes, "scanning
the blogs involved in the memo story, readers found few corrections or
references to lessons learned."

The Rathergate episode, in which the blogs were right, and the
Schiavogate story, in which they were wrong, indicate that the blogs
have reached a sort of parity with their mainstream colleagues. This
development poses a question: What can the mainstream media do that the
blogs can't? And vice versa.

I ask this as both a fan of the mainstream media, which I love to
torture, and of blogs, whose passion and doggedness remind me of why I
became a journalist and a press critic in the first place. I started
writing press criticism at Washington City Paper back in 1986, because
as editor I couldn't get anybody else to do it. Writers were frightened
that if they penned something scathing about the Washington Post or the
New York Times they'd screw themselves out of a future job. Today, the
sort of dagger and epee work I used to perform on big media gets done by
hundreds of bloggers before I can rise and read the morning paper.
Thanks to blogs, we've gone from a culture where few criticized the
press to one where it's the new national pastime.=20

When it comes to opinion pieces, bloggers have an edge over the pros.
I'm not saying that bloggers are necessarily better writers than
full-time members of the commentariat, but Daily Kos
<http://www.dailykos.com/>; , Joshua Marshall
<http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/>; , Daniel Drezner
<http://www.danieldrezner.com/blog/>; , Daily Howler
<http://www.dailyhowler.com/>; , Volokh Conspiracy <http://volokh.com/>; ,
Brad DeLong <http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/>; , et al.,
produce more immediate and succinct copy than their mainstream
colleagues. To stretch a manufacturing analogy, unsalaried bloggers
represent low-cost Chinese laborers, professional journalists the
well-paid-with-benefits American workers. Given the right tools and
infrastructure, low-cost Chinese labor can produce work that is every
bit the equal of the high-price kind. What the Web has done is remove
the barriers to entry from opinion journalism, much to the benefit of
readers. If told that I had to forgo the editorial and op-ed pages of
the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and
the Los Angeles Times or lose my blog bookmarks, I'd say hands off my
browser!=20

Professional journalists have it all over bloggers when it comes to
reporting. The first generation of bloggers tends to resist taking off
their PJs and donning hip-waders to report the news from the swamp.
Reporting is a learned skill, and experience counts for something. Also,
professional news organizations pay for airplane tickets, hotel
accommodations, car rentals, libel insurance, editing, and other
resources to make reporting happen. How many unpaid bloggers will cover
a war from the shrapneled front? A handful. Maybe.

Yet the pros don't have a complete lock on reporting. Energetic
bloggers, such as activist Michael Petrelis
<http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/>; , have learned to work the FOIA
machinery and the FEC database as well as the best professionals.
Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters
<http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004252.php>;  kicked up
an international incident
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/international/americas/07canada.html?
ex=3D1270526400&en=3Dfe1785ef395f82d0&ei=3D5090&partner=3Drssuserland>  =
just
this week by publishing banned-in-Canada material about the Canadian
Liberal Party. Russ Kick of the Memory Hole
<http://www.thememoryhole.org/>;  does heroic work in retrieving banned
information and uncovering government secrets. If they wanted to,
bloggers could poach the local news beat away from the professional
media by covering city council and school-board activity that goes
undocumented by the mainstream. Greensboro 101
<http://www.greensboro101.com/localblogs.php>; , in Greensboro, N.C., has
those sorts of ambitions. Likewise, Mark Potts' "hyperlocal"
backfence.com <http://www.backfence.com/what_we_re_doing.html>;  hopes to
take "reporting" down to the pixel level of neighborhood T-ball games,
PTA meetings, and development issues.=20

As many critics have remarked, blogs will never replace the mainstream
media because without the mainstream media to feed on they can't exist.
Blogs are parasites, they say. Oddly, when the mainstreamers sup from
the trough set out for them by the National Security Archive
<http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/>; , the Center for Public Integrity
<http://www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx>; , the GAO
<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gaoreports/index.html>; , and other
institutions, nobody calls them parasites.=20

Writer for writer, mainstream journalists possess more talent than
bloggers, and talent matters when you're competing for an audience. It's
no accident the several of the best bloggers, Mickey Kaus
<http://slate.msn.com/id/2065132/>; , Andrew Sullivan
<http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?switch=3Dblack_white&dish_inc=3D=
dis
h_blog.html> , James Wolcott <http://jameswolcott.com/>; , and Joshua
Marshall <http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/>; , honed their interpretive,
narrative, and reportorial skills in mainstream media. It sounds flip,
but one thing mainstream journalists could teach bloggers is that there
is more to the craft of writing than typing "Atrios nails it!" and
linking to Eschaton <http://atrios.blogspot.com/>; .=20

Professional journalists enjoy better reputations than bloggers, but
that's mostly a function of the propaganda put out by some pros that
bloggers fill every sentence with mistakes. (Bloggers return the insult,
of course.) When David Shaw <http://slate.msn.com/id/2115883/>;  of the
Los Angeles Times threw a brick from his glass house late last month, I
threw it back. While not five nines reliable
<http://www.nwfusion.com/details/5642.html?def>; , the better blogs that
I read are as accurate as your average daily newspaper (which might not
be saying that much). As I've argued before
<http://slate.msn.com/id/2099617/>; , journalists have the right to get
it wrong occasionally, and this right should be extended to bloggers. If
we refrain from publishing until we're 1,000 percent certain, the only
thing we'll end up reading is Ph.D. dissertations.=20

What can bloggers do that professional journalists can't? Because
bloggers answer to no one, they need not worry if their dispatches cause
the chairman of the board of General Motors to stop talking to the
publisher=E2=80=94or placing ads. Their independence gives them a =
subversive
strength, one that undermines the cozy relationship the press has with
its corporate cousins and government. The unmediated nature of blogs,
which frightens so many professional journalists, is really a plus. With
so many bloggers writing outside the bounds of authority, they've become
impossible to silence or censor, and their provocations help keep the
national debate going at full tilt. Too bad constructive recklessness
can't be taught.

******

I owe one of the ideas in this piece to Reason <http://www.reason.com/>;
's Nick Gillespie. He owes me a drink. Send drink vouchers and
non-refundable ideas to pressbox@hotmail.com. (E-mail may be quoted by
name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Jack Shafer <mailto:pressbox@hotmail.com>  is Slate's editor at large.=20

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2116498/
More on the bloggers v. journalists issue...

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<html><head><meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" content=3D"text/html; chars=
et=3Dutf-8"><title>E-mail</title><link rel=3D"stylesheet" type=3D"text/cs=
s" href=3D"http://www.slate.com/css/HTML30shared.css" ><style>a:visited {=
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<font size=3D"3"><strong>press box</strong></font><br clear=3D"all"><span=
 class=3D"clsLarger">Bloggers Freer Than Reporters?</span><br><span class=
=3D"clsSmall"><font color=3D"gray">And vice versa.</font></span><br>By Ja=
ck Shafer<br><span class=3D"clsSmaller"><font color=3D"#CC0000">Posted  <=
font color=3D"#CC0000">Friday, April 8, 2005, at 8:29 PM PT</font></font>=
</span><br clear=3D"all"><!--After Date--><br clear=3D"all"><p><div style=
=3D"clear:both"></div>Not that long ago, you had to be a professional rep=
orter to publish defective copy. Not any more. Thanks to blogs, the journ=
alist monopoly on the wide-scale propagation of blunders, boo-boos, and b=
loopers has vanished. Now, complete amateurs can embarrass themselves bef=
ore huge audiences.</p><p>Bloggers demonstrated their skill at botching a=
 story last month when a swarm of them accused the <a target=3D"_blank" h=
ref=3D"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49701-2005Mar19.htm=
l"><em>Washington Post</em></a><em> </em>and <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D=
"http://64.233.161.104/search?q=3Dcache:KGs-bcV4k2AJ:abcnews.go.com/Polit=
ics/Schiavo/story%3Fid%3D600937+%2522GOP+Talking+Points+on+Terri+Schiavo%=
2522+&hl=3Den">ABC News</a> of journalistic malpractice. The two news=
 organizations had reported on the existence of a GOP talking-points memo=
 about Terri Schiavo. The bloggers asserted it was a Ratherian fake. As E=
ric Boehlert details in <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.salon.com=
/news/feature/2005/04/08/schiavo_memo/print.html"><em>Salon</em></a>, the=
 nay-saying blogs consumed terabytes of bandwidth denouncing the <em>Post=
</em> and ABC. <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://powerlineblog.com/arch=
ives/2005_03.php#009955">Powerline</a>, <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http=
://michellemalkin.com/archives/001838.htm">Michelle Malkin</a>, the <em>A=
merican Spectator</em>'s <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.spectato=
r.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=3D7935">Prowler</a>, <a target=3D"_blank" hr=
ef=3D"http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=3D6941">PoliPundit</a>, and <a ta=
rget=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.aim.org/press_release/2806_0_19_0_C/">=
Accuracy in Media</a> led the charge.</p><p>After the <a target=3D"_blank=
" href=3D"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32554-2005Apr6.h=
tml"><em>Post</em></a><em> </em>and others proved the legitimacy of the d=
ocument on April 7, bloggers proved themselves the equals of their mainst=
ream media colleagues once more by ignoring or glossing over their goof. =
Boehlert writes, <em>"</em>scanning the blogs involved in the memo story,=
 readers found few corrections or references to lessons learned."</p><p>T=
he Rathergate episode, in which the blogs were right, and the Schiavogate=
 story, in which they were wrong, indicate that the blogs have reached a =
sort of parity with their mainstream colleagues. This development poses a=
 question: <em>What can the mainstream media do that the blogs can't? </e=
m>And vice versa.</p><p>I ask this as both a fan of the mainstream media,=
 which I love to torture, and of blogs, whose passion and doggedness remi=
nd me of why I became a journalist and a press critic in the first place.=
 I started writing press criticism at <em>Washington City Paper </em>back=
 in 1986, because as editor I couldn't get anybody else to do it. Writers=
 were frightened that if they penned something scathing about the <em>Was=
hington Post </em>or the <em>New York Times </em>they'd screw themselves =
out of a future job. Today, the sort of dagger and epee work I used to pe=
rform on big media gets done by hundreds of bloggers before I can rise an=
d read the morning paper. Thanks to blogs, we've gone from a culture wher=
e few criticized the press to one where it's the new national pastime. </=
p><p>When it comes to opinion pieces, bloggers have an edge over the pros=
<em>. </em>I'm not saying that bloggers are necessarily better writers th=
an full-time members of the commentariat, but <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D=
"http://www.dailykos.com/">Daily Kos</a>, <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"ht=
tp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/">Joshua Marshall</a>, <a target=3D"_blank=
" href=3D"http://www.danieldrezner.com/blog/">Daniel Drezner</a>, <a targ=
et=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.dailyhowler.com/">Daily Howler</a>, <a t=
arget=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://volokh.com/">Volokh Conspiracy</a>, <a ta=
rget=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/">B=
rad DeLong</a>, et al., produce more immediate and succinct copy than the=
ir mainstream colleagues. To stretch a manufacturing analogy, unsalaried =
bloggers represent low-cost Chinese laborers, professional journalists th=
e well-paid-with-benefits American workers. Given the right tools and inf=
rastructure, low-cost Chinese labor can produce work that is every bit th=
e equal of the high-price kind. What the Web has done is remove the barri=
ers to entry from opinion journalism, much to the benefit of readers. If =
told that I had to forgo the editorial and op-ed pages of the <em>New Yor=
k Times</em>, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, the <em>Washington Post</=
em>, and the <em>Los Angeles Times </em>or lose my blog bookmarks, I'd sa=
y hands off my browser! </p><p>Professional journalists have it all over =
bloggers when it comes to reporting. The first generation of bloggers ten=
ds to resist taking off their PJs and donning hip-waders to report the ne=
ws from the swamp. Reporting is a learned skill, and experience counts fo=
r something. Also, professional news organizations pay for airplane ticke=
ts, hotel accommodations, car rentals, libel insurance, editing, and othe=
r resources to make reporting happen. How many unpaid bloggers will cover=
 a war from the shrapneled front? A handful. Maybe.</p><p>Yet the pros do=
n't have a complete lock on reporting. Energetic bloggers, such as activi=
st <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/">Michael P=
etrelis</a>, have learned to work the FOIA machinery and the FEC database=
 as well as the best professionals. Captain Ed at <a target=3D"_blank" hr=
ef=3D"http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004252.php">Captain=
's Quarters</a> kicked up an <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.nyti=
mes.com/2005/04/07/international/americas/07canada.html?ex=3D1270526400&a=
mp;en=3Dfe1785ef395f82d0&ei=3D5090&partner=3Drssuserland">interna=
tional incident</a> just this week by publishing banned-in-Canada materia=
l about the Canadian Liberal Party. Russ Kick of the <a target=3D"_blank"=
 href=3D"http://www.thememoryhole.org/">Memory Hole</a> does heroic work =
in retrieving banned information and uncovering government secrets. If th=
ey wanted to, bloggers could poach the local news beat away from the prof=
essional media by covering city council and school-board activity that go=
es undocumented by the mainstream. <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://ww=
w.greensboro101.com/localblogs.php">Greensboro 101</a>, in Greensboro, N.=
C., has those sorts of ambitions. Likewise, Mark Potts' "hyperlocal" <a t=
arget=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.backfence.com/what_we_re_doing.html">=
backfence.com</a> hopes to take "reporting" down to the pixel level of ne=
ighborhood T-ball games, PTA meetings, and development issues. </p><p>As =
many critics have remarked, blogs will never replace the mainstream media=
 because without the mainstream media to feed on they can't exist. Blogs =
are parasites, they say. Oddly, when the mainstreamers sup from the troug=
h set out for them by the <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.gwu.edu=
/~nsarchiv/">National Security Archive</a>, the <a target=3D"_blank" href=
=3D"http://www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx">Center for Public Integr=
ity</a>, the <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gaorep=
orts/index.html">GAO</a>, and other institutions, nobody calls them paras=
ites. </p><p>Writer for writer, mainstream journalists possess more talen=
t than bloggers, and talent matters when you're competing for an audience=
. It's no accident the several of the best bloggers, <a target=3D"_blank"=
 href=3D"http://slate.msn.com/id/2065132/">Mickey Kaus</a>, <a target=3D"=
_blank" href=3D"http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?switch=3Dblack_wh=
ite&dish_inc=3Ddish_blog.html">Andrew Sullivan</a>, <a target=3D"_bla=
nk" href=3D"http://jameswolcott.com/">James Wolcott</a>, and <a target=3D=
"_blank" href=3D"http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/">Joshua Marshall</a>, =
honed their interpretive, narrative, and reportorial skills in mainstream=
 media. It sounds flip, but one thing mainstream journalists could teach =
bloggers is that there is more to the craft of writing than typing "Atrio=
s nails it!" and linking to <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://atrios.bl=
ogspot.com/">Eschaton</a>. </p><p>Professional journalists enjoy better r=
eputations than bloggers, but that's mostly a function of the propaganda =
put out by some pros that bloggers fill every sentence with mistakes. (Bl=
oggers return the insult, of course.) When <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"h=
ttp://slate.msn.com/id/2115883/">David Shaw</a> of the <em>Los Angeles Ti=
mes</em> threw a brick from his glass house late last month, I threw it b=
ack. While not <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www.nwfusion.com/detai=
ls/5642.html?def">five nines reliable</a>, the better blogs that I read a=
re as accurate as your average daily newspaper (which might not be saying=
 that much). As I've <a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://slate.msn.com/id=
/2099617/">argued before</a>, journalists have the right to get it wrong =
occasionally, and this right should be extended to bloggers. If we refrai=
n from publishing until we're 1,000 percent certain, the only thing we'll=
 end up reading is Ph.D. dissertations. </p><p>What can bloggers do that =
professional journalists can't? Because bloggers answer to no one, they n=
eed not worry if their dispatches cause the chairman of the board of Gene=
ral Motors to stop talking to the publisher=E2=80=94or placing ads. Their=
 independence gives them a subversive strength, one that undermines the c=
ozy relationship the press has with its corporate cousins and government.=
 The unmediated nature of blogs, which frightens so many professional jou=
rnalists, is really a plus. With so many bloggers writing outside the bou=
nds of authority, they've become impossible to silence or censor, and the=
ir provocations help keep the national debate going at full tilt. Too bad=
 constructive recklessness can't be taught.</p><p>******</p><p>I owe one =
of the ideas in this piece to <em><a target=3D"_blank" href=3D"http://www=
.reason.com/"><em>Reason</em></a></em>'s Nick Gillespie. He owes me a dri=
nk. Send drink vouchers and non-refundable ideas to <a target=3D"_blank" =
href=3D"mailto:pressbox@hotmail.com">pressbox@hotmail.com</a>. (E-mail ma=
y be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)</p><a target=
=3D"_blank" href=3D"mailto:pressbox@hotmail.com"><em>Jack Shafer</em></a>=
<em> is <strong>Slate</strong>'s editor at large. </em><br><br><font face=
=3D"Arial, Helvetica, Geneva" size=3D"2">Article URL: <a href=3D"http://s=
late.msn.com/id/2116498/" target=3D"_blank">http://slate.msn.com/id/21164=
98/</a></font><br>More on the bloggers v. journalists issue...
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