Res Publica 2005

Overtaken by Events really does an outstanding job on taking apart Mr. Coleman's view. Here is a sample. Get over there and read the complete piece!

Look Out, The Reporters Are Pissed!!!

Another "Real Journalist" has his panties in a wad over we unwashed bloggers. Nick Coleman from the Minneapolis Star Tribune is highly agitated.

This just in: I am a very wealthy man, born into privilege and power, and a stooge of the Democratic Party. Oh. That reminds me, Smithers: Bring me the heads of some Republicans, would you? Also, set out the good silver. Fritz is coming over to give me my marching orders. Dad-ums would be so proud, wouldn't he, Muffy?

Nothing in the opening paragraph is true, but bloggers and talk-show barracudas have said so, tossing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. I happen to enjoy the idea of me as to the manor born, so I have taken to wearing an ascot to my corner pizza parlor.

Tossing things against a wall to see what sticks? Sounds a lot like a CBS tactic. Between the TANG story, which only stuck to CBS and the latest story about Bush's secret plan for the draft, what would you call it? If you answered "Murrowesque", please seek professional help.

But this is not about me. It is about the war against the media. A lot of it, we deserve. But a lot of the attack against the mainstream media is coming from bloggers, which is like astronomers being assaulted by people who swear that aliens force them to have sex with Martians. Why don't you admit we are being invaded by Venusians?

Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, Jack Kelley, etcetera, etcetera. Yeah, I'd say you deserve a bit of scrutiny. Of course, we wouldn't be able to complete this paragraph properly without a (not-so) clever and demeaning attack. Now bloggers are the UFO crowd. We live in a pure fantasyland, unable and unwilling to concede the reality that truth can only be known by those with J-school diplomas.

And while we're on this subject, check out the neat job that Kalblog has done on a different, but similar attack:

I think what he's missing here is that even if Cole or Volokh else can never be the "man on the scene," there are people who are. There are Iraqi bloggers. There are Milbloggers. Though in both these cases, they're almost entirely restricted to the right side of the 'sphere.

So yeah, Instapundit doesn't have the same resources as the New York Times, but the blogosphere collectively can do a lot more than Klein suggests.

Add to this the fact that 99% of us are hobbyists who only write when we want to, and do it mostly for the love of it (or attention, even) and not because we're getting paid and feeling the pressure of a deadline. If there's one thing the MSM has more of than the 'sphere, it's laziness, even if there are a lot of really poorly-written posts out there.

And at the end of the day, bloggers edit each other by linking or not linking, and offering criticism or praise, and the major ones serve as gatekeepers to the wider world.