Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Blogging as Journalism
Generally, even the best blogging is geared more towards spreading stories that have been broken by somebody else, or putting stories into their proper perspective (as this Kos diary on yet another Fristian refusal to back away from the ledge that is the Nuclear Option does, for example). And unless and until a way is found to facilitate journalism-minded bloggers to do journalistic legwork in an affordable manner (and to do a better job of vetting than is usually found on IndyMedia or Democratic Underground), this is how it's going to stay. But that doesn't say that bloggers are totally unable to do legwork, even on those stories that have been "broken" by conventional journalists. The Chan Chandler case is one example. The Melody Townsel case is another. Chandler's already tried the "it was all a misunderstanding" bit. That angle was rendered inoperative nationwide when CBS News played the audiotape of one of his sermons. As for Melody Townsel, her example encouraged other Bolton critics to step forward, thus taking a shoo-in and un-shoo-ing it.
More blogs about politics.
