Answering the Blog question part 2

In Barb Palser's article, Journalism's Backseat Driver, she wants to get across the idea that blogging has become a new form of reliable journalism, or a watchdog for journalists. They have achieved "credibility as media pundits," they are "conduits between mainstream media and the online zeitgeist," and they have become the police of the media.

So far as bloggers becoming police of the media, this is true. The question should be how credible are they in being the watchdogs of media? Ken Parish wrote an article, Monitorial Cyber-Citizens that would agree with Palser, in that bloggers have become the new public intelligentsia that should work as fire alarms for the media. The problem I have with this is that blogging has opened a realm in which anyone can come and give their ideas. It may be poor of me to say but I really do not believe everyone that blogs should be considered credible. So, it comes down to deciphering who is who in the blogging world.

As far as the idea of being mediators between online and mainstream, I do agree that bloggers have invented an ingenious program. Bloggers have more access to online blogs and forums and can relate these things to mainstream media. Their job is to criticize the media and writing online articles would make one believe that they are more in-tune with online activity.

Yet, the ultimate question is credibility. As far as media relying on some blogs for credible media pundits is hard for me to fathom. Bloggers have an agenda, much like any journalist, and support their side and try to tear down another. This leads me to believe that the bloggers are far from objective reliable sources. I may be wrong to say that all bloggers are not credible, but they are as credible as progressives would say Rush Limbaugh was credible or conservatives would say Al Franken was credible.

The thing that people need to realize is that the blogging community is not a place to go to get objective news. It should not be considered a reliable news community. As a watchdog of the media, blogging is basically designated to watching the media. We need to realize that hearing journalist relying on bloggers as credible pundits leads me to believe that we are in trouble.