Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Sunday, February 13, 2005

On Blogging and Journalism

Do they go hand in hand? The question is covered by the Christian Science Monitor in Are bloggers journalists? Do they deserve press protections? The article stems more from the revelation about iPod shuffle and the small new Mac CPU on a blog. What I don't get I guess is why Steve Jobs isn't interested in free buzz. Maybe it's that he's worried somebody will steal the idea. (Topic for another entry: The iPod shuffle isn't that original; it's almost a step backwards, merely to be less expensive but compatible with the iWorld.)

Personally, I don't expect anybody reading this to take anything I say as gospel; it is my opinion (especially when I called Margaret Spellings a really nasty name which I don't have any problem saying to her face, though I starred it out after "the folks in Legal", i.e. my conscience, recommended I do so). Generally I get information from the Web itself so I have something else to point to to back up my claim.

Al Tompkins, of the Poynter Institute's "Al's Morning Meeting" daily email, talked "bosses who blog" in his Friday Edition this week:

It would be cool to have governors, mayors and Members of Congress blogging. I would not be interested in partisan junk, but in the real day to day struggles of serving a state, city or congressional district. I bet, if done routinely and honestly, it would become required daily reading. Wouldn't it be interesting if news directors and editors wrote regular blogs about why and how they chose to cover what they covered each day.

With that nice segue, he linked to news director Peggy Phillip's blog and newspaper editor John Robinson's blog.

Two things to consider are a) should I stay semi-anonymous here? and b) where is the delineation, for me in my newswriting life/career, between opinion and plain, factual, balanced reporting? Can I write this blog, compose an opinion like Margaret Spellings is a blankety-blank, and then go to work and write things without an opinion? It'll be something to work on ... I'll probably be mulling that over for some time.

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Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 2/13/2005 04:42:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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