Newspapers Confront the Blog Question

The Wall Street Journal today weighs in on a question close to our hearts: newspapers and blogging. In particular the Journal looks at blogs by newspaper reporters, and wonders how they square with "just-the-facts tradition of mainstream news reporting." It seems that, God forbid, bloggers "sometimes inject opinions into their posts," and they are generally not reviewed by an editor. The concern seems to be that blogs will undermine newspapers’ standards – but that’s not really the issue at all.

For one thing, the basic premise is flawed. Even leaving aside the editorial and op-ed pages, most newspapers are full of columns and news analysis pieces in which writers "inject opinions" – as if opinions were an alien element of the thought process that gets "injected" at some stage for nefarious reasons. Reporters and editors have opinions, everyone. And sometimes those opinions shape what they write. In fact, good newspaper columns are in many ways indistinguishable from good, journalistically oriented blogs.

If online writings are not subject to the same level of scrutiny as the printed page – another issue raised by the Journal – that’s mainly a function of economics. It costs a ton of money to print and distribute something on paper, so you’re going to be extra-careful about what you publish in that form. It costs nothing to ramble on at length online, so it’s by nature more free-form and less subject to picking and pruning by layers of editors. The better bloggers, of course, know how to avoid the trap of unlimited space, and sometimes even seek editing that can improve their writings. And there is no reason that bloggers and publishers can’t apply whatever editorial standards they feel are appropriate.

By Jonathan Weber

Full Story: http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/2203/