You can check it out here. Along with a cryptic editor's note, and a brief appearance by Michael Skube. "The journalism that bloggers do" is my official semi-crowdsourced reply to that instant classic in curmudgeon lit, Blogs: All the noise that fits.
It's my official, semi-crowdsourced reply to that instant classic in curmudgeon lit, Blogs: All the noise that fits. ("The hard-line opinions on weblogs are no substitute for the patient fact-finding of reporters") by Michael Skube, August 19 in the Sunday opinion section.
The original had no links, no comment section. The Blowback has quite a few links--including a tour of blog-style reporting--and I insisted on a comment section. See:
Blowback: The journalism that bloggers actually do. ("A New York University professor critiques Michael Skube's recent Times Op-Ed questioning the journalistic value of blogs.")
Blowback! That's what you're in for when a great American newspaper runs a Sunday opinion piece as irretrievably lame as "Blogs: All the noise that fits" by Michael Skube...
is how it starts. Also:
In Skube's columns, there's a teacher who doesn't believe in doing his homework - any homework.
So I did it for him. I asked friends in the blogosphere to help me put together a list of examples that would confound Skube if he knew of them, but possibly interest his students. Blog sites doing exactly what he says blog sites don't do: "the patient sifting of fact, the acknowledgment that assertion is not evidence ... the depiction of real life."
Read the rest. And then....
Replying to Josh Marshall's stark account of Skube's cluelessness (see Annals of Reporting) the Times published an editor's note that doesn't quite-- well, see for yourself. This is the note:
Note from Editorial Page Editor Jim Newton
August 22, 2007
A number of readers have contacted The Times in recent days regarding an Aug. 19th opinion piece by Michael Skube. In some cases, readers have asked whether Times' editors improperly inserted material in Michael Skube's piece without his knowledge or permission. That was not the case, as this note from Skube makes clear:
Before my Aug. 19 Opinion piece on bloggers was printed, an editor asked if it would be helpful to include the names of the bloggers in my piece as active participants in political debate. I agreed.
Readers will choose to agree or disagree with Skube's conclusions, but I hope the above resolves questions about the editing of the article.
Sincerely,
Jim Newton
Editorial Page Editor
I predict it will not resolve all the questions people have about the editing of the article.
Wanna talk to the LAT? Comments on the note and Skube episode can go here, at a post by Matt Welch on the Times opinion blog. Thanks to all who helped gather sharp examples of blog-style reporting and research.
Let me know what you think of the list...post-pub additions are welcome.