This diary responding to the article criticising bloogers generally in the New York Times today got me thinking, particularly after reading this post in the comments (slightly edited):
what is a "blog?"
...
Lets face it, there are two basic types of blogs:
- diary essayists (not journalism)
- "reporting" (actually copying other sources) and "commentary" (when linked to a news story)
#2 needs to follow journalistic ethical stds...
This essentially points to the difference between news and commentary, the difference between what's on the front page of a newspaper and what's on its editorial page.
In order to make Daily Kos meet an even higher standard than it all ready does, there should be a division between "News" diaries and "Essay" diaries. Or, rather, news pieces should be posted in a "News" section. For example, news posted by posted on GannonGuckert by ePluribus Media would be posted in a different section than diaries that comment on the news.
Furthermore, primary postings in the news section should also have a means for rating the posts credibility. Commentaries and essays, on the other hand, are rated for quality, but those posts that claim "news" status should also be rated for credibility by the readers. Those stories that are sourced, meet ethical guidelines, and stick to the facts get a high rating, whereas those that do not get lower ratings.
Also, there would need to be a means of reporting essays and commentary that get posted in "News" and requesting that they be moved to the Diary/Commentary section. In our credibility rater, the parallel to the "troll" rating would be a "This is not News" rating, which should indicate to site moderators that it should be reviewed for placement in the regular "Diaries" section.
We already have a division in our diaries on the site: Most Recommended and Recent Diaries. Generally, the commentary stay in the "recent" column, while the "news" posts, especially the "big news" ones, get recommended up. However, we could have the best of both worlds: Have a Most Recommended (and thus most credible) News Stories section and a Most Recommended Diary section, with a "recent" list for each section. This way we can glance at the top news or go through everything posted. And we can instantly know which standards apply to which post simply by what "section" of the site it is listed in.
Then, DKos should trumpet this clear innovation to the NYT and all reporters who paint Left-Wing blogs with the same brush that they do Right-Wing blogs. We can point to all of the above and say "See, we make distinctions between news and opinion. Rightwing blogs do not. WE have measures for self-regulating by rating a story's credibility and removing stories that are erroneous or untrue from our "news" area. They do not. We demand and adhere to ethical guidelines for what gets posted as news. They do not. And as for our commentaries and editorials? Well, we defer to the free speech rights of our readers and posters."
Our reason for doing this is to say this to the Mainstream media: Not all blogs are created equal. Our news blogs, we hold to the highest of journalistic ethics, but our opinion blogs are not bound by such rules, nor would we want them to be.
And, adhering to ethical guidelines should by no means force us to adhere to some faux "balance": Lies should NEVER be given the same weight as the truth. Any good news story ferrets out what the truth really is, not simply report on what both sides said. Any story where the larger truth cannot be readily determined should not be published, at least not without noting that fact. I believe that we can lead the way in creating a new standard for blogs and all media by modeling it ourselves.