Bloggers are Bad - What??????
I just read an article in a recent Forbes Magazine which had very few good things to say about Blogging. Blogging ruins reputations, falsely accuses people and companies of things they may or may not have actually done, and says bad things about people and products. Sounds a lot like any "news" program on TV or editorial in a daily newspaper to me. To this Peanut Gallery member it sounds like I - and the rest of my ilk (ie: everyday normal people) - are not qualified to have an opinion or to express it. To this Peanut Gallery member, it sounds like you may be saying the First Amendment applies only to "certified" members of the press. While, since my understanding is that the First Amendment applies to me as well as you, I have a few views on this matter.
Here's one of the (wrong) points in the Forbes article: bloggers do not provide a fair and balanced view of issues. The fact is that the press, through their reporters and editorial staff, are able to spread their - founded or as it turns out in many cases not so well founded - opinions and rhetoric around under the guise of being part of "fair and balanced" reporting. Fair and balanced reporting my foot. I would like the press - from the New York Times to PBS - to show me one regularly scheduled show or a regularly printed newspaper that is "fair and balanced" to a normal non-partisan individual. The only problem with bloggers that I can see is that we do not have the cover of a magazine to hide behind when we spout our opinions.
Here's another problem the press has, they cannot control our opinions. What a shame, I am actually allowed to have my own opinion, and publish it, without owning a printing press. Isn't the Internet, the 21st century equivalent to the printing press, wonderful. I can have an opinion and the press cannot do a thing about it. I can tell other people my opinion, and they are powerless to prevent this as well. The biggest deal with blogs in this regard, is that I can reach anyone anywhere in the world - whether I know them or not - and the press REALLY hates that. Using the power of the Internet, blogs define the "free press", now don't they.
Here's yet another thing. I can have an opinion (and from reading this blog you know I do) on a product or service, without any undue influence provided by advertising. Now, if I had a big advertiser, I just couldn't up and run a negative article on them, could I. I would probably have to check with them to make sure a "cleansed" version of whatever I was about to say wouldn't offend them. It's like the car of the year award - which probably went to the manufacturer who spent the most advertising dollars - not the one with the most unique/beneficial/cost efficient vehicle.
Hey Forbes - and the rest of you self righteous so and sos in the press. Get over it. If I want to hear a bunch of (fair and balanced) diatribe from the left or right I can read any major daily newspaper or turn on any national "journalistic" program on TV. I don't want that. I don't want your hidden agendas or "special coverage". I don't want to be saturated with your view on anything from Scooter Libby to New Orleans just in case you don't think I am not "getting it" the first 50 times you tell me about it. I don't want to see just what you show me, or hear just what you want me to hear. I also don't want you preaching to me about how you have "ethical" standards and intimate that bloggers don't. What I do want to know is what people like me - just a normal little unimportant person in this world - have to say on a subject. That's why I like blogs and that's why I don't regularly read any newspapers. That's also why I elected not to get a TV for my apartment, and don't miss it at all.
I am sick of the press. And I am sick of them telling me what I should think. I am now sick of them complaining about every day ordinary people - like us in the Peanut Gallery - being able to have and express our opinions to anyone who wants to read them. The beauty of the wired world is that we are all equal. And we are all entitled to express our opinions - good or bad, and qualified or not, because the First Amendment says we can. And that, my friend Steve, is really what keeps you awake at night, now isn't it.
Here's one of the (wrong) points in the Forbes article: bloggers do not provide a fair and balanced view of issues. The fact is that the press, through their reporters and editorial staff, are able to spread their - founded or as it turns out in many cases not so well founded - opinions and rhetoric around under the guise of being part of "fair and balanced" reporting. Fair and balanced reporting my foot. I would like the press - from the New York Times to PBS - to show me one regularly scheduled show or a regularly printed newspaper that is "fair and balanced" to a normal non-partisan individual. The only problem with bloggers that I can see is that we do not have the cover of a magazine to hide behind when we spout our opinions.
Here's another problem the press has, they cannot control our opinions. What a shame, I am actually allowed to have my own opinion, and publish it, without owning a printing press. Isn't the Internet, the 21st century equivalent to the printing press, wonderful. I can have an opinion and the press cannot do a thing about it. I can tell other people my opinion, and they are powerless to prevent this as well. The biggest deal with blogs in this regard, is that I can reach anyone anywhere in the world - whether I know them or not - and the press REALLY hates that. Using the power of the Internet, blogs define the "free press", now don't they.
Here's yet another thing. I can have an opinion (and from reading this blog you know I do) on a product or service, without any undue influence provided by advertising. Now, if I had a big advertiser, I just couldn't up and run a negative article on them, could I. I would probably have to check with them to make sure a "cleansed" version of whatever I was about to say wouldn't offend them. It's like the car of the year award - which probably went to the manufacturer who spent the most advertising dollars - not the one with the most unique/beneficial/cost efficient vehicle.
Hey Forbes - and the rest of you self righteous so and sos in the press. Get over it. If I want to hear a bunch of (fair and balanced) diatribe from the left or right I can read any major daily newspaper or turn on any national "journalistic" program on TV. I don't want that. I don't want your hidden agendas or "special coverage". I don't want to be saturated with your view on anything from Scooter Libby to New Orleans just in case you don't think I am not "getting it" the first 50 times you tell me about it. I don't want to see just what you show me, or hear just what you want me to hear. I also don't want you preaching to me about how you have "ethical" standards and intimate that bloggers don't. What I do want to know is what people like me - just a normal little unimportant person in this world - have to say on a subject. That's why I like blogs and that's why I don't regularly read any newspapers. That's also why I elected not to get a TV for my apartment, and don't miss it at all.
I am sick of the press. And I am sick of them telling me what I should think. I am now sick of them complaining about every day ordinary people - like us in the Peanut Gallery - being able to have and express our opinions to anyone who wants to read them. The beauty of the wired world is that we are all equal. And we are all entitled to express our opinions - good or bad, and qualified or not, because the First Amendment says we can. And that, my friend Steve, is really what keeps you awake at night, now isn't it.
posted by slates at 12:00 PM
1 Comments:
As a reluctant member of the media (a freelance writer), I can tell you why I regularly read blogs:
1. So many times I have been assigned to do a story and my personal opinion or perception cannot be used in the story. I have done new business profiles and walked away thinking, "Won't be around in six months." I have interviewed VIPs whom I have found to be jackasses. At times, I have be assigned a story knowing that there is a specific slant that needs to be worked, when in reality, it should be something else. As a writer, I do not hav the liberty, should I wish to be considered for future work, to include my opinion.
2. Bloggers are rarely the target of spinmeisters. When I get assigned to write about someone who has hired a PR or marketing firm, I am generally inudated with "information," "suggestions" and offers to "pre-edit" my work. The higher paid the PR or marketing firm, the more aggressive they are.
3. Bloggers typically write out of a passion or interest to be heard. There is very little financial compensation - when compared to writing for pay - in the bloggosphere. The motivation behind the words are completely different.
4. I visit a select number of blogs on almost a daily basis. These bloggers represent a WIDE range of political and social views, which is something you don't get in traditional media right now. Generally speaking, if you turn on CNN or MSNBC or open the NYT, the opinions are from the far ends of the spectrum. In between is America, which the media fails to recognize.
5. Bloggers are not familiar, for the most part, with the legal concepts of libel and slander. They don't censor themselves. They lay their opinions on their line. And big businesses, political parties and crazy alien movie stars who jump on Oprah's couches (and their legal eagles) aren't quite sure how to handle this new frontier. At least not yet.
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