Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Kurtz on Bloggers

Today's "Media Notes" column by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post is, as usual, worth reading. It's long and covers a lot of topics. Perhaps the most interesting is the detailed discussion at the start of the column on the impact of blogs. A very brief sample:

In the wake of Eason Jordan's resignation at CNN, have bloggers become a new and fearless source of fact-checking and truth-telling? Or are they, in the poke-'em-in-the-eye phrase of Steve Lovelady of Columbia Journalism Review, "salivating morons" who comprise a "lynch mob"?

I lean toward the view that the rise of blogs is a healthy development and is forcing the MSM (how did the mainstream media get stuck with a three-letter initial?) to become more accountable, rather than display their old we-stand-by-our-story arrogance. There is, to be sure, plenty of partisan noise and mean-spirited attacks out there, but also a lot of thoughtful and ground-breaking posting on stories, or angles, either missed or minimized by the MSM types.

I agree with Kurtz. Since I started reading blogs a few short months ago, I've been amazed at the intelligence, quality research, and skilled writing evident in many of them. And I'm not necessarily talking about the megablogs that get a gazillion hits a day. Some that aren't so widely read are absolutely excellent and deserve much more attention.

1 Comments:

Blogger MaxedOutMama said...

Another aspect of this is that blogs are used for niche news. There is so much that is newsworthy to a segment of our population but just can't make it into the major publications. Blogs are filling that gap.

3:51 AM, February 16, 2005  

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