Day By Day

Monday, March 07, 2005

Bloggers Make Journalism Better

Ralph Kinney Bennett, writing in TCS, declares that "Bloggers are the best thing that has ever happened to journalism."

He writes:

They make a good reporter look better. They expose the phonies, the poseurs, the fast-writing conmen, with the speed of light.

They give the journalist a greater access to more information and informational context than ever before.

They provide swift exposure to varied points of view, and, most importantly, a constant, sometimes rough, but always important gauge of a reporter's skill, judgment, industriousness and integrity.

Never before has weak reporting, biased reporting, dishonest reporting, or lazy reporting been more swiftly exposed.

Indeed, the whole idea of whether journalism is indeed a profession -- or just a happy combination of craft, curiosity, cleverness and confidence tricks -- is being tested for the first time out there in the ether....

Blogs are not a substitute for the dogged, primary source reporting that still marks great journalism. But they bring a new efficiency to the "hunt," and enhance the journalist's reach and grasp of the world to a degree never before possible.

They are forcing the journalistic priesthood out of the temple. It's disconcerting. It's fun. And it's good, real good.


Read the whole thing here.

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