Today there was a story in the paper about local blogger Dambala revealing his true identity for the first time. I have to break my nola.com link boycott and send you here to read it. The article and the comments are interesting. Dambala had been hiding his identity while blogging at American Zombie. I will be watching to see how this turns out for him. He presents information about certain people and companies that the mainstream media hasn't really picked up on if you know what I mean. The article discusses the pros and cons as to why would a blogger want to hide their identity. I never really have any breaking news to share so I haven't had the need to disguise anything. Even when someone I know gives me information that is not public I never add it to a blog because I don't know anyone who can survive financially if word got back they shared information with me. I couldn't survive it if I lost my job behind something like that so I avoid it. It keeps this particular blog from pushing the edge like American Zombie. It would be fun to do that but we all have to eat. I know my limitations.
Something in the tone of that article and in the comments that bothered me. There's hypocrisy out here against bloggers, particularly the ones that do this on their own like me.. I never claim to be and don't try to be a legitimate journalist. They went to school and get paid to investigate and report the news. I think most bloggers don't pretend to be at the same level they are. The hypocrisy comes in when people want to minimize bloggers because most of their material is just opinions about news stories. Almost the entire political and social climate in this country is being driven by a bunch of people with an opinion about a news story. At any given time of the day you can turn on your television or radio and listen to someone give their opinion. This is especially true in politics when all the people doing the most screaming have never actually been involved in politics. They just have opinions based on their ideology in life. I do the same thing here except I don’t have a network banner behind my name to make my opinion sound like the truth no matter what I say. If we are going to eliminate what people say because they don't have sources and data then there needs to be a lot more professional wrestling to replace all the talk shows on television. As far as I am concerned, as long as Glenn Beck is on the air any blogger can be legitimate as long as they try to be truthful and responsible as possible.
3 comments:
The hypocrisy comes in when people want to minimize bloggers because most of their material is just opinions about news stories. Almost the entire political and social climate in this country is being driven by a bunch of people with an opinion about a news story. At any given time of the day you can turn on your television or radio and listen to someone give their opinion. This is especially true in politics when all the people doing the most screaming have never actually been involved in politics.
Amen. I don't understand why a talk-radio host or a talk-radio caller is just "expressing an opinion," but when someone with a blog does the same thing, it's somehow offensive.
Well... suffice to say the two things are equally offensive.
But Cliff is right. Most bloggers make no claim to any sort of journalistic status (although a select few do and deservedly so). Mostly they... we.. are just people on the internet discussing what we've read or heard. What's so wrong with that?
You're preaching to the choir with me, Cliff. Overall, I think the blogosphere has been a plus -- wingnuts and all -- and that the MSM's problems are self-inflicted.
In the last presidential election, the liberal blogosphere from Huffington Post and Daily Kos on down to you and me was quick to expose anti-Obama lies and smears as weirdo fringe wingnuttery.
Given a blogosphere critical mass in 2004 to combat the Swift Boat smear, John Kerry might be president today. The MSM was too busy being "objective" and creating the phony story of how Kerry handled the response to the smear rather than exposing the smear itself. Feh on them.
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