Daily Kos

That Skube is merely up to old, discredited tricks. I can't say I'm surprised at this: that Skube didn't do any research then and hadn't done any now, or that the LA Times printed the piece without seriously vetting it.

Thanks for this.

There's a war on for the minds of America, and the blogs are winning. The trad media is terrified, because they know it. Their pedestal has been kicked out from under them, and they just can't stand that.

Easily-exposed hypocrisy in hit pieces like this should be distributed far and wide, so people can SEE what trad media has become: propaganda organs for our times. I plan on sending this information to everyone I know, especially those who swear "trad media" is the be-all and end-all of reporting. Thanks for diarying on this...

He accurately reported what the media thinks about blogging.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the stated topic of his essay.  Heh.

It would be nice if these people referred to us not as "bloggers" but "their readers."  We're their audience.  Surprise, surprise.

Bloggers have no issues with real journalism-- and we have favorites--Bill Moyers,  Keith Olberman,  etc.  Thus it is not the profession that bloggers are trying to replace or compete with.

Each newspaper has Letters to the Editor.  Blogs should be seen as People sending letters to the editor of how they see the issues of the day.

Thus if reporters screw up their reporting or report propaganda without fact checking---they will hear from us.

Blogs are not trying to replace them--as Skube said --we dont have resources to do original story and investigative reporting.

Bloggers and their commenters are MSM readers and critical reviewers.

Send him an email.  Give him a piece of your mind.

Last night I googled his name.  Guess what?  He's done this before?  And been called on it!  

I've send the guy an email.  I've sent a letter to the LA Times.  

And Mr. Rosen, thank you for this!  In my view the man owes an apology to the blogs he has slandered.  And to the readers of people like Jose Marshall, and so many writers here and elsewhere.

It infuriates me that such a person, who has only a B.A. and no training in journalism, should be allowed to continue to teach.

I agree. He should resign!  I was hoping you, of all people, would sound off on this.   So thanks again!

No Pulitzer? So it is!

Ha ha! This guy really sucks at facts. Which, as you know, demand demanded time, thorough checking and verification and, most of all, perseverance.

I don't need to tell you what to write--that would be way presumptuous--but I do not want the gentleman to feel victimized.  Best would be to point out examples of blog sites digging up information, but whatever you say in an email please be polite.  

Last night I googled his name.  Guess what?  He's done this before?  And been called on it!

Didn't my post say that?

There are few who better understand what we bloggers are all about and few who better understand the state of journalism today than Mr. Rosen.

Thanks, Jay, for your professional opinion.

Don't newspapers like the LA Times have editors?
Skube claimed according to Josh Marshall that an editor added his and other blogs names to his piece. Could that be true? Do editors actually add information to op-ed pieces without telling authors or readers?
If yes then I'm even more confused about just what newspapers are doing and what their responsibilities are to their readers.
Please explain. Thanks

His comments here weight powerfully.  And woe to Mr. Skube.

the Bill Moyers keynote speech to journalism educators.

The C-SPAN video clip is about 62 megabytes, 1 hour speech, absolutely must viewing.

You see, by writing an error-riddled, fact-challenged screed against the blogs, Skube was actually engaging in a brilliant bit of Gonzo journalism. Of course, he realized that bloggers would give his piece a thorough fisking in no time, thus proving the value of the blogs in relation to traditional media (or OFM — Old Fashioned Media). A genius, that guy!

I tried to search for that on the LSU website.  But maybe there's a more specific thing to do?

People have always had opinions and critique of the media. Mr. Skube just preferred when it stayed around the water cooler.

And on the obsolescence front, he must not believe that his rigorous brand of journalism will hold its ground against the unserious ramblings of the masses.

I know an editor at the LA Times who saw my post.  He asked me if I wanted to write a Blowback piece (see this example) for the opinion section of the site.

A reply of sorts to Professor Skube.

I am not interested in investigating him, but I am interested in including in my reply 7-10 diverse and interesting examples of blog sites doing original reporting.  The kind of thing he wouldn't know about because he didn't check it out before opining.

That is, I am trying to be constructive and informative in my response, which will also be quite critical.

I have three to start off with that I think I will use, two well known, one less so.

1.)  Talking Points Memo's pursuit of the US attorney's story this spring and over time.

2.)  Firedoglake at the Libby trial March 2007.  

3.) Daily Kos community and the Sinclair Broadcasting dossier in October 2004.

I know of others but I welcome your suggestions.  The more different they are the better.  If you want to be really, truly helpful, word your suggestions  in two-three lines starting with a link, like this:

March 2007. Firedoglake at the Libby Trial.  Lefty political blog provides the only blow by blow coverage of the trial by splitting the work among six contributors.

Format is...

• Month, year
• Title for the "case" that is also a link to the url that best takes you into it
• One-sentence description of the reporting done written in present tense. ("provides the only" as against "provided the only")

Can do?

The case of Mrs Panstreppon at TPM is one I have written about, and may use.

See the diaries by Jay Lassiter, but you have to go back a month or two since the legislature takes the summer off.

http://www.bluejersey.com/...

But obviously it is true that blogs are largey based on opinion -- more a threat to the OpEd pages than the true news.  Actually, we are the news consumers -- I wonder who they think read the paper?

Septemeber 2006, Steve Clemons Bolten failed confirmation.

August 2006, Not Larry Sabato Macaca moment for former Senator Allen.

Americablog Jeff Gannon story.(I see someone else already mentioned it but I thought John from Americablog also did yeomans work on this story.

Glenn Greenwald.

There are too many examples to count. But a few of his major accomplishments include early 2006 reporting on the recently-disclosed warrantless wiretapping program, and, most recently, his thorough debunking of the Pollack-O'Hanlon "good news from Iraq" speaking tour.

He has consistently voiced some of the most articulate and passionate defenses of bloggers-as-journalists and of the blogosphere generally. Perhaps just browsing some of his recent posts would help to prepare your rebuttal.

that brought to the attention of congress, the fact of 8 US attorneys being fired and in the process congress found someone had slipped a change in law into the Patriot Act?

The blogs led the way!

NNadir in a series of technical, fact-filled, diaries with the actual numbers on nukes vs. fossil fuels.

I posted this in the comments on a diary on the subject earlier today.

The sentiment, I think, is the same as Rosen's (and, for what it's worth, I also teach journalism, though not at a j-school).

are these:  

georgia10 researched and wrote The Informed Citizen's Guide To The 2004 Election (download here). Wed Jan 05, 2005

Long lines were intentional, and meant to suppress the Democratic vote.  Ohio had upwards of 68-90 extra machines available on election day, and despite frantic calls from poll workers asking for more machines, the State refused to release them.  The initial allocation of machines were deliberately designed to decrease Democratic turnout; Nearly one out of three (31%) Democratic precincts had less voting machines in 2004 than in 2000 compared to less than one out of six (16%) Republican precincts. Of the 217 precincts where voting machines were subtracted, 184 (85%) were Democratic.  Videos documenting the suppression can be viewed here.

Did long lines violate the right to vote?  One Ohio judge, on Election day, ruled that waiting in an excruciatingly lone line and being forced to choose between waiting to vote or leave "imposes an undue burden on the right to vote and in effect could amount to a denial of that right."  

Febble (elizabeth liddle) analyzing the election exit polls in 2004. April 29, 2005

In her spare time, she wrote a children's book and developed in interest in American politics while posting on the British Labor party on DailyKos.  A self proclaimed "fraudster" she came to believe our election "may well have been rigged," that "real and massive vote suppression" occurred in Ohio where the recount was "a sham" and the Secretary of State "should be jailed."

She is, in short, perhaps the least imaginable person to have developed a computational model that both suggests a way to resolve the debate about whether the exit polls present evidence of fraud and undermines the central thesis of a paper by a team of PhD fraud theorists.

But that's exactly what she's done.

Assignment editors, if you are out there (and I know you are), while it is a bit complex and geeky, this is an amazing story.  Read on...

You are such much more than an uncle to some of our favorite kossacks.

are 'Americans' in the shadow of corporations is a travesty of justice.

of the Beltway are great as well.

-- but who do ongoing work as bloggers they can't do as journalists:

David Neiwert aka Orcinus, on "Eliminationism in America"

Fred Clark aka Slacktivist, on "Left Behind"

Craig Burnham at Turn Maine Blue was out front on Susan Collins' blogger using allegations that Daily Kos was a hate site to smear her opponent Tom Allen.

If you want a less obviously political example, you could consider the website Groklaw (www.groklaw.net), which did to the Sco Group vs. Novell, IBM, et al.  trials what Firedoglake did with the Libby trial.  In depth-analysis, courtroom reports, timelines, etc., though in this case the court cases in question were about the ownership and intellectual property rights contained in popular open-source software packages.  Also similar is that the level of analysis on the blogs was vastly, VASTLY superior to that found in the popular media.  Groklaw has repeatedly embarrassed Forbes' coverage, as well as that of several Tech industry publications.

Maybe the retirement plan isn't all that great.  

Judging by his attitude, the medical plan doesn't seem all that great either.

Blogs have been instrumental in providing background on various whistleblowers...

Sibel Edmonds
Jesslyn Radack (spell?)
Bunny Greenhouse
etc.

Jeff Masters' blog at Wunderground is the go-to spot for hurricane coverage.

echidne of the snakes provides ongoing coverage of feminist issues with an economist's and statistician's eye; her series on the Gender Gap in wages is IMHO definitive.

Media Matters for America and their ongoing, constant fact checking of the traditional media?

I know I'm not in format, but wasn't sure this would qualify or be quite right for the list.

We were just talking about getting on the FP of kos the other day. Nice post. Hope your drive home was uneventful.

They've broken some excellent stories....

The Trailhead Group's many nefarious activities were fist exposed there.

Ann Coulter's lack of fundraising prowess was reported.

And here's their own highlight page. No, they aren't bashful.

em dash over at unbossed has had some very good investigative reporting pieces and series, by her and the other blog co-authors.  Can anyone post an example or four?

and AmericaBlog.org discovered that Talon News White House reporter Jeff Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, was a male prostitute and male escort website developer.

Thanks for doing this Prof. Rosen.

The Skube (pr. skoob) is way off on this one. I mean, where does he get off lamenting the lack of debate within the blogosphere? The posts in this diary alone just shows how cooperative posters are with one another, how they check on each others facts, provide additional references to look up facts, and other aspects The Skube says aren't present. When I see diaries and posts like this, I see democracy. People like The Skube, Lieberman, and Bill O see noise and hate. Whatever, they're so 2002.

Just a few to maybe pursue, if my memory is serving me right: Didn't the blogs dig up the lies and theater behind the purple fingers at the State of the Union?  The Downing Street memo stuff (was that Kagro X?) may qualify as an example, too.  Last thought: Dengre's work on the Marianas and Delay and the rest?  Dashing, here, so I don't have links or research to back anything up -- just ideas to offer.  Thanks, Jay, for taking this on.

08/05
Katrina Coverage:  Round the clock updates as the storm approached New Orleans

Channeling information from multiple weather center sources to provide gripping, hour by hour coverage of potential damages, DarkSyde's Hurricane Katrina diaries are widely read during the storm and in the immediate aftermath. They are included in a collection of science articles in the e-book Kosmos: You Are Here, co-written with science fiction novelist Mark Sumner and illustrated by paleowildlife artist Carl Buell.

Examples of blogs catching things the traditional media never bothers to research.  Hmm, how much time do you have?

• March, 2006
• Busting Kaloogian's Iraq "Truth Tour" farce
• Kaloogian, Republican candidate, posts picture he's claiming represents a peaceful Baghdad; took about twelve seconds for readers at DKos and DU to figure out that the picture is really a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey
• Link

• ongoing investigation
• GOP criminality facilitated by Abramoff on the Marianas Islands
• Per dkos diarist Dengre: "Since 1994, Republicans under Gingrich, DeLay, Bush and the rest of their power-hungry elites have protected a system of human trafficking, forced sex, sweatshops, labor abuse and money laundering on this rogue Western Pacific US Territory."
• Link

• August, 2005
• Pentagon using our tax dollars to host vulgar celebration of 9-11
• "America Supports Your Freedom Walk," also known as "KOOL AID" exposed as the mindless propaganda fest that it was
• Link 1; Link 2

Or how about dailykos diarist emptywheel vs. disgraced war propagandist Miller?

• August, 2005
• Emptywheel takes a quick, 6-part looksee at Judith Miller's career
• Link to all 6 diaries at the dkosopedia Judith Miller entry as well as several other dkos diaries about Ms. Miller's "career."

...Brad Friedman is the number one source for news on "election integrity" (read they stole three elections and counting).

...for the cut and paste impaired

...Really ...this is a must read every day.

I remember when Markos took a vacation in Montana and came back to tell us that there was this guy Tester who was way behind in the primary polls but was real people we might be interested in helping into the Senate ...

Here's some nominations:

1. http://www.epluribusmedia.org/...

It's home page alone shows the depth of this Web site's investigations.

For its continuing series on the U.S. attorneys

http://www.epluribusmedia.org/...

2. Bloggers and the Downing Street memos. This was vastly covered on the Internet because the corporate media failed to recognize its importance. This coverage evolved into

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

3. The Iraq Fact Working Group

http://www.iraqfact.com/

4. Daily Kos' lukery on Sibel Edmonds:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Though I haven't seen Shirah's reporting here lately, Shira at dkos and unbossed.com has done terrific reporting on toll roads, which kick-started investigative reporting by citizen journalists all around the country. Shirah writes equally valuable pieces on public interest subjects. Check out unbossed.com

Here's the impressive private toll road series.
http://www.unbossed.com/...

...as there is just no point in listing more atrocities by BushCo, but all of these were Blog-related developments up to about 2006:

~Tillman cover-up
~Schiavo
~How many people affected in Hurricane Katrina
~Lack of the use of swift boats in the Katrina Rescue effort
~No air drops to Superdome
~Orders to shoot people over a loaf of bread that was taken from a store
~Explosion heard 2 days after the storm passed and THEN the levees gave way
~GOP holding votes open
~Last throes comment
~Stuff happens comment
~Mission accomplished (100 dead at the time)
~Medicare reform Bill
~Class-Action Reform Bill
~Medicare not allowed to broker prices for prescription drugs
~Drownie
~Condi shoe shopping
~We don't torture, we send detainees to other countries to not be tortured
~Democrats are muzzled on all legislation
~Lobbying is well out of control
~Abramoff
~DeLay
~Diebold
~Ohio elections
~Katherine Harris
~Journalists targeted in Iraq
~Oil not paying for the war
~Not being treated as liberators
~Patrick McHenry claiming we hate America (Schiavo case)
~Ethics committee gutted
~FDA will approve anything (except emergency birth control)
~Attack on Social Security
~President flipping off the camera
~No child left behind is not paid for
~Refusing aid after Katrina
~Red Cross not allowed to assist after Katrina
~Fema is way too bloated and does nothing that the DHS can't do
~Cutting aid to NYPD and FDNY that are affected form the cleanup effort when they were told that the air was safe to breathe
~Tax cuts to those that don't trickle it down
~3 Trillion Dollars more in debt
~No help in NOLA until Bush arrived (then it stopped again when he left)
~Abu Ghraib
~Gitmo
~Italian reporter shot up
~Bolton recess appointment
~No legislation passed that big money hasn't backed
~Documented reports of Bush's Grandfather (Prescott Bush) bankrolling Adolf Hitler
~Buying the Iraqi press
~Wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera
~No water or electricity in Iraq
~Cindy Sheehan shunted
~Harriet Miers
~Jessica Lynch
~Soldiers serving well after their agreed enlistment time
~President won't hold press conferences
~President only speaks to cherry-picked audiences
~Plame Outing
~Scooter Libby
~Spy in Cheney's office
~Jean Schmidt
~Wage stagnation
~Halliburton in New Orleans and Iraq
~Outsourcing of jobs
~Money printed in Iraq
~NO WMD
~Yellow Cake
~Rove
~No victory gauge
~No armor for soldiers either Iraqi or American
~Outsourcing the building of Marine 1 Helicopters
~Fighter jets sold to Pakistan by W...on a Saturday
~No accuracy in unemployment rate reporting
~SEC has become a joke
~Hedge funds aren't regulated
~No war strategy
~Downing Street Memos
~Borrowing from the communists
~$330,000 a month to Chalabi
~Bush housing Saudis
~Where's UBL
~Flew UBL's family out of the country after he bombed us
~No border security
~Gas prices
~Home heating prices higher than ever in history
~IRS auditing churches
~Price of war way underestimated
~Bayoil
~Closed session of Senate accomplished nothing the GOP said it would
~Pre-war intel was/is fixed
~Alabama voted for Jeff Sessions (how can that be?)
~Environmental laws absolutely gutted
~Middle class forgotten all-together
~Redistricting to rig elections
~Patriot Act
~Civil rights eroded/gutted
~Treatment of Michael Schiavo
~GOP votes against EVERY inquiry of wrong-doing
~9/11 commission ignored completely
~Programs for the neediest gutted
~Education budged harshly slashed
~Terror alerts subsided after Keith Olbermann finally exposes the coincidences
~Every document is classified
~Most secretive president ever
~Curveball
~Interstates inadequate for mass evacuations
~What was the Noble cause
~Everyone in NOLA have life insurance(?)
~Blaming Tenet for the "slam dunk" comment and then awarding Medal of Freedom
~Elderly deaths went way up during the Social Security Savagery
~Dems can't add amendments to legislation
~Over 60% of elections won by less than 4%
~Sensenbrenner walked off with the gavel during Patriot Act hearing
~Tax cuts to ship jobs away
~Soldiers getting Purple Heart collections
~Fox News isn't biased
~Veterans benefits cut
~No exception for soldiers in the Bankruptcy Reform Bill
~Internet threatened with regulation
~Every shopping bag at Wal-Mart is made in Singapore
~Bianca
~Still ignoring NOLA
~Creating immigration laws that take affect in 5 years
~Pat Robertson and James Dobson tell their congregation how they should vote
~Jerry Falwell too
~Corruption is the norm
~No timetable for when the debt will be paid
~DOW was at 11,770 when Bush took office 5 years ago
~Dollar is losing value
~Haven't defined what is/isn't torture for all to hear
~Trade agreements are not even close to fair
~Ports left unprotected
~Definition of a terrorist is ever so vague
~GOP claims to have different degrees of Neo-Cons (but they all vote exactly the same)
~Swift-Boating John Kerry
~What is the Skull and Bones Society?
~Drownie was kept on the payroll
~Drownie was never fired
~Newt touring with Hillary
~How many soldiers in an Iraqi Batallion?
~Max Cleland was treated like a piece of shit
~Why were helicopters used to find the people, trying to escape the rising waters, pounding on their roofs from inside their attics?
~5 deferments
~Nuclear option
~Ethics committee couldn't get Cunningham 2 years after it was known that his house was sold to a defense contractor for $700,000 over it's value as he lived on that contractor's yacht
~20% tax on land phone lines
~12% on cell towers
~Diesel fuel is 50 cents higher than gasoline
~Home by Christmas
~Establishing a democracy and not a Republic?
~Jeb doesn't have FEMA woes
~War profiteering
~Health care
~Armstrong Williams
~Sure quote Lieberman a lot
~Caspian Sea pipeline
~If it's a Reform Bill or Deregulation Bill the result is never better quality or more affordability
~Cheney said he was glued to the TV all week like everyone else
~Christian values never reflected in legislation
~Jeff Gannon
~Nobody accountable for anything
~Smoking in the rotunda
~Loaded SCOTUS
~MZM
~Chuck Hagel was CEO of ES&S
~Offshore accounts of members
~No mistakes come to mind
~Niger
~Haley Barbour told us FEMA was there on Tuesday
~No scandals given credence
~Math is spun (math don't lie)
~Government is largest in over 200 years
~Looking under a desk for WMD's
~Non-combative protestors arrested
~Soviet Gulags
~Superdome
~Opium export in Afghanistan up 2000%
~Hannity is a Pussy
~Ready for a Category 6?
~Global warming ignored
~Hans Blix
~Pakistan earthquake money
~Private prison stockholders
~George H W Bush runs Pharma
~Ambassador to the Vatican?
~Rush never busted on possession charges
~Bill Bennett
~Joe Wilson
~Indian Casino lobbying for how much?
~We aren't safer
~Wire-taps BEFORE 9/11
~SCOTUS chose our President
~Carnival cruise line contract after Katrina
~Able Danger
~Ken Lay
~Harken Energy
~Rupert Murdoch
~Blatant over-charges in Iraq and NOLA
~Bird Flu vaccine for only 20 million
~Name 4 pieces of legislation passed by the Republicans that Adolf Hitler would NOT have applauded as a good start....

here

August 2005: DarkSyde and Hurricane Katrina (w/meteorologist Steve Gregory) Daily Kos provides live diaries with commentary for more than 36 hours prior to landfall. Reports in the comment threads in hindsight were proven to be far more accurate than the White House briefings on matters such as levee breaching and timing.

08/27/2005 14:54:06 PDT
08/28/2005 04:22:25 PDT
08/28/2005 08:17:44 PDT
08/28/2005 10:27:49 PDT
08/28/2005 17:23:50 PDT
08/28/2005 20:57:40 PDT
08/29/2005 06:09:40 PDT

Levy breaks (none / 0)
Levies are breaking....the WWL coverage is breaking up, they have flood warnings...

Breach at industrial area, 3-8 feet water so far...breakin' up, can't hear much...(industrial canal bridge?)

by Barbara on Mon Aug 29, 2005 at 06:39:00 AM PDT

08/30/2005 13:12:28 PDT

...in the White House Press Room? I should remember but I don't? That was one of the funnier blog investigations because it involved the series of puff questions by this hooker on the pad of Bush.
  And  Armstong Williams getting paid--handsomely-- to knock the education dept. was good as well.

...for his ongoing series that constitutes explanatory journalism on the subject of the intersection of the religious right and its role in politics.

Frederick Clarkson writes some of the most thoughtful and revealing diaries on Theocracy crossposted here on Daily Kos and on his http://www.talk2action.org/ blog.

Bravo to Frederick Clarkson. We could not keep up with this subject without his thoughtful reporting, much more interesting than any religion page on any daily newspaper that I am aware of.

I took a break for dinner and, you know, put my kids to bed and things like that.  But I see that my post made it to the front page and lots of suggestions have come in, along with, er, other discussion.

I am just going through the 60+ "new" replies now.

is the one who discovered Ben Domenech's plagiarism. Does that count?

Has the MSM (or whatever it is called) provided any background and statements on mine safety by the owner of the mine?

Isn't this a story almost only on the leftblogoshere?  Shouldn't there be the context to the owner's views on mine safety?

I don't know anyone who does not start the day without reading Juan Cole's blog for an update on what is going on in Iraq, the potential for the U.S. starting a war with Iran, and for the strengths and weaknesses in reporting at daily newspapers, magazines and TV news.

Juan Cole has replaced starting the day at any particular daily newspaper because every night, or ridiculously early in every morning, he goes through the news at a wide array of sources both here and overseas and picks out what is most relevant about the occupation in Iraq. No news source provides the level of comprehensive links to responsible reporting and analysis that Cole does. And, he translates relevant pieces from the Arabic.

Cole is the single most respected voice on the Iraq war and many of his readers believe his well-documented reports long before  we believe anything this government has to offer. The reason is simple. Our government lies routinely. Juan Cole does his best to dig out the truth, and what he does not know, he offers varying analysis from a variety of viewpoints on his blog.

that tomorrow's journalists are today's bloggers

Ask almost any established journalist and they will say that they first became interested in journalism in High School or College, and that they worked on either their own paper or the school's paper.

Ask any established journalist 20 years from now how they started, and I can almost guarantee that they will say that they wrote a significant amount on their blogs and that their writings (and the comments on their writings) both helped them become better writers and encouraged them to become journalists.

Irony Alert:
Indeed, I would be amazed if Mr. Skube does not require his students to e-mail in their assignments and/or write blogs (although perhaps only readable on an internal network) for his journalism courses.  I can think of no better way to teach journalism than to have the students post what they write to a group of peers who will discuss, comment, and dissect that individual's writing, facts, interpretation, and analysis.

Based on his Op-Ed piece, can I also infer that Mr. Skube would like to see the removal from newspapers of Letters to the Editor as well?  After all, aren't LTEs just pre-internet blogs? Or isn't the opinion of the governed suppose to matter any more?  Or perhaps it's the fact that  bloggers can state their opinion multiple times in almost limitless detail, but are usually limited to the number of LTEs that they can get published (limitations are usually monthly) and the number of words they can use to convey their message (usually less than 200 - 500 words).  

As I see it, these limitations to the "free press" greatly dilutes our voice so that the analysis of the "journalist" is always given more space  and at a higher frequency, regardless of the real ability of the "journalist" to adequately present the details of the story (if the story is presented at all!). As most propagandists know, opinion is molded by the constant repetition of what is to be believed, and the denial of exposure to alternative points of view (ever notice that less important stories often have multiple POV,but that really important stories are almost always presented with little or no dissention or the presentation of conflicting facts?)  

Mr. Skube's diatribe is Just another example of an "elitist liberal arts professor" obsessing about the potential for losing his/her elite status as a "real" intellectual.  And I say this as someone who has taught at three different private liberal arts colleges (physics and astronomy) over the past two decades (one fairly near Elon University, BTW) and who is well-versed in the social and political maneuverings at these small colleges.  BTW, Mr. Skube's Op-Ed piece in the LA Times will be hailed by the Elon administration as an indication of how important their faculty is outside of the local Elon bubble.  I might suggest that LTEs or Op-Ed pieces based on the great discussions here at DK and elsewhere be sent to the Elon student newspaper as well as the Greensboro and Winston-Salem papers. Small college politics is so much fun...

There is more than just the U.S. attorneys' office scandal.

Remember their work on the "faint hearted faction" re social security.  IIRC they were actually doing the hard grunt work on contacting every Senator's office to see where they stood.  And not taking mumbo jumbo for an answer.

I also seem to remember the same doggedness about tracking down who had put a hold on a bill.

That kind of stuff is priceless.  And the traditional media have forgetton how to do it.

What took the Wapo so long ?

Daily Kos: ACTION ALERT: Walter Reed Wounded Vets Need Phone Cards!

by tlh lib  
Thu Nov 11, 2004 at 03:15:16 AM CDT

Apparently the govt doesnt pay any LD charges for the wounded who are hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center (many through the holidays and many of course who are not from families who have a lot of money to spare) and they are in desperate need of phone cards to keep in touch with their families and friends.   This is just getting beyond an outrage to a point that I have a hard time figuring out the words to express it.   As other DU'ers said, thank god the rich got their tax cuts but good lord the govt cant even pay our wounded hospitalized vets freakin long distance charges???  Where does the bullshit ever end?

June-August 07

The Spectrum Auction for Dummies (and by Dummies), on Adelstein, the trailer, Four-Dimensional Kabuki. He hasn't done a wrap-up post yet.

Covers the FCC's plans to auction parts of the wireless spectrum, explaining the technical, legal, and political angles with great clarity.

TJ and Carla of Loaded Orygun have done some solid reporting. Not just on de-bunking the false smearing of Oregon state Rep. Betsy Johson, but also digging into and pushing the story about GOP Sen. Gordon Smith and his conspiring with Rove/Cheney on the violation of the law (ESA) and the aftermath... the salmon fish-kill in 2003.

that maybe he is not as special as he once thought himself to be.

Look, there was a time in my life when I thought I would get a journalism degree. It didn't happen. Although I would have made a hell of a journalist, my life took another path.

I finally got around to college in my 30's and while I was at the local community college, I spent a semester  working at the college newspaper. The people I met there were proud of their journalistic standards and they appreciated my help.

Just because I did not get a degree does not mean that I could not get a degree and just because I did not get a degree does not mean that I can't write. Many people don't need to take a class in order to understand journalistic methods and ethics. Research, verify, check sources, check facts, report.

Many of the people that I met went on to get degrees in journalism. Some of them started an online newspaper and many of them have their own weblogs. Just because you are a blogger does not mean that you are not a journalist. As a matter fact, one of those blogger journalists broke a huge story that was picked up by the local news media and caused the retirement of the president of the aforementioned community college.

What this guy seems to be saying in his oped is that not everyone has the right to write, or they shouldn't. What is he so afraid of?

You know what they say, a little bit of competition never hurt anyone.

Almost all of Marcy's original reporting--in which she essentially sussed out most of the details that mattered in the Libby trial and connected enough dots to anticipate where Fitzgerald would eventually go with his prosecution--was originally posted at The Next Hurrah.  Yes, FDL deserves tremendous credit for turning over so much of their high-value space to Marcy (and Christy) to live-blog the trial.  But Marcy's ability to quickly connect the dots as Fitzgerald drew them came from the work she put in to her original posts over a two-plus year period at The Next Hurrah.  

Jus' sayin...

August, 2007, Michael Totten in Iraq, Blogger in Iraq reports on frustration of American soldiers, and the terror of Iraqi civilians, over the infiltration of Shi'ite death squads into the Iraqi Army and police. Includes interview with terrified Iraqi civilian who says he would be killed if it were known that he cooperated with Americans.

June 2007 Cheney DID NOT say he is No Longer a Member of the Executive Branch: The Real Story is Much Worse: Average blogger is the only reporter to actually read primary source.

Thanks for these many suggestions and tips.  One immediate need I see is for more examples of blog sites doing original reporting--developing new information, or pulling it together in an original and  useful way--that don't have anything to do with politics.  (Not that I don't love politics, but we have a lot of those.)  Please post examples you have from tech, politics, art, business, education.