Alan Coverstone is my new blog crush. Seriously, if you live in Nashville, then you must read his post:
I speak now to point out that blog, blogosphere, and blogger are terms that are being used to silence citizens with opinions. Much like Reagan used liberal to silence any reasoned disagreement with his policies, many now use the label blogger to imply that the author of a blog is a wacko, siting around writing in his underwear. That impression is offensive and wrong, and while I have come to expect that kind of heavy-handed silencing rhetoric from politicians who don’t want to address the specifics of their education plans, I was surprised to hear it from the editors of our papers.
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This is not a personality contest, and it is time the so-called war between “bloggers” and journalists be called what it really is: a serious appeal by real, involved, active, experienced, and qualified citizens for a press that will ask the tough questions for us. We need you, Mr. Brewer and Ms. Garrigan. We cannot do it without you. Our voice is limited, but it is not illegitimate. Every time you label well-meaning citizen voices as radicals, liberal, or bloggers, you attempt to silence the people and play into the hands of the campaigns that manipulate your coverage.
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Watching the pResident’s press conference yesterday, particularly the questions about the Attorney General, I was struck by the idea that it’s really high time someone in the press corps reached down the front of his pants, felt around for a set of balls, and just asked out loud, to his face, for all to hear: “Sir, are you delusional or just that stupid?” Sure, Hume, Novak, Orally and their ilk would have a field day about it being “disrespectful,” but it’s a question that many, hell MOST Americans are asking on a daily basis. And if you want to talk about disrespectful, this administration has been disrespectful of the constitution, the people it’s supposed to be serving, the troops in Iraq, and the world in general. Disrespect is what they know. Maybe it’s time to show them some. Maybe just once, when someone does ask something resembling a hard question, when he yammers on without saying anything, that reporter needs to stand there and say, “Sir, you haven’t answered my question and I’m not going to sit down until you do.”
I saw parts of Neil Cavuto’s “interview” with Bush and I’m amazed that Edward R. Murrow’s corpse hasn’t risen from the grave and tracked Cavuto down to kick him in the nuts. “Reporters?” “Journalists?” Not by any definition I’ve ever known.
Opinions expressed in blogs may be just that: opinions. While there are plenty of nut jobs here, there are nut jobs in the MSM too. E-opinions are just as valid and informed (often times more so) than those on the op-ed page of any newspaper in the country. When “real journalists” leave the public with a huge informational void, they shouldn’t be surprised when someone rises up to fill that void.
I think that the problem is that most blogs are the equivalent of church newsletters, usually bad ones. Of the millions of blogs floating about, only a fraction of those are actually worth reading. Most are not researched and do not even attempt to subscribe to any code of media ethics. Hell, most aren’t even spell checked.
This is, I think, the result of the youth of the blog community. Over time well written blogs will gain legitimacy while the second tier blow hards will go back to bloviating over pints.
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