December 30, 2004

One Paper Gets Blogging

The Riverside Press Entreprise totally gets what blogs are doing to mainstream journalism. You'll need to register with their site to read it (unless you have already registered with a the website of sister paper such as the Dallas Morning News) but it is worth the hassle.

David beat Goliath repeatedly in 2004, as a ragtag crowd of commentators on political Weblogs, most of them unpaid, hastened the retirement of a media icon and derailed a $300 million presidential campaign. Political bloggers shoved Dan Rather toward the door and brought John Kerry's political biography back to Earth. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.

Yet 2004 was no fluke. Blogs are neither a fad, nor a creation of the vast, right-wing conspiracy. They're a cyberspace version of the 18th-century pamphleteers who defied the British crown and championed American independence - an online truth squad spanning the political spectrum that revels in revealing inaccurate reporting or misleading arguments. And bloggers will continue to dislodge entrenched elites so long as mainstream journalism rebukes rather than embraces them.

Blogs react to events as they occur. They can incorporate in postings background materials that are too detailed for a newspaper story or a TV broadcast. And the rough code of ethics that guides the most prominent political bloggers - their willingness to answer criticism and confess mistakes in real time so that they can uphold their reputation - could undermine the credibility of "old media" institutions that aren't comfortable saying, "We goofed."

... It's this "truth squad" aspect to blogging - a burning desire to separate facts from spin - that should give big media the willies. Bloggers don't pretend to be "fair and balanced." Many are partisan cheerleaders, nothing more.

But bloggers have reputations. As the "Instapundit," University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, said of Rathergate: "For journalists of (Rather's) generation, admitting an error means admitting that you've violated people's trust. For bloggers, admitting an error means you've missed something, and now you're going to set it straight."

...Blogs can keep the mainstream media honest, by exposing stories driven by partisan agendas rather than the pursuit of truth.

The Press Enterprise must have read Hugh Hewitt's new book, Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World , which I'm urging all of my readers to also purchase and read. Five of my readers already have ordered a copy. Those five will be among the few who join the blog revolution that is undermining the old media monopoly and giving individuals a voice in the marketplace of ideas.