Thursday, August 26, 2004

Bloggers for truth

If you wonder why most of our mainstream media are weenies, a visit to Romenesko's blog at Poynteronline ("EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BE A BETTER JOURNALIST") is eye opening.

It's a like a gossip column where every journo who visits can feel like a celebrity. There are links to every self-serving story that glorifies the profession, more catty talk than you can find in an average gossip column, Republican bashing in case younger or "diversity" journos have a question about who they should despise, and group think. Romensko is especially good at spotting those stories that will savage the reporter who strays from the expected media norm. He provides a letters section for those who want to pile on, the perfect group think punishment for those who wander away from the Liberal keyboard. The choice of stories is always revealing.

Typical is a link to this story about bloggers.

Bloggers are the self-assured know-it-alls of the political media. Shrugging off impartiality and other journalistic creeds in favor of partisan swagger, D.C.-centric Web loggers wield their various points of view with a degree of confidence known only to true believers.

The Journal News is a Gannett paper, same publisher as USAToday. You might remember USAToday's difficulties with truth.
Kelley, like Blair, seems to have developed a long history of questionable journalistic practices; and USA Today, like the New York Times, has shown a disconcerting tendency to look the other way when faced with evidence of such behavior.

Jack Kelley wasn't just a plagarist. He, like Jayson Blair, were paid liars. It wasn't the journalists who were caught so much as the newspapers they worked for were caught, exposed for their biases. They didn't tolerate Kelley and Blair. They created them.

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