Via Balloon Juice and Daily Kos earlier today, Connie Schultz is concerned about us uppity bloggers:
The so-called citizen journalism of most blogs is an affront to those of us who believe reporting and attribution must precede publication. Fact-checking is tedious; it often derails juicy rumor and deflates many a story.
Yes Connie, fact checking is tedious, attribution is hard, and getting it right beyond mere stenography, before hurriedly spraying it onto an edit screen, would take time, eh? And gosh, traditional media would never do any of those things.
Indulge me for a moment: My old friend Ed Brayton was on a conference call with Bart Stupak (D - Mi) last week. He asked if Stupak was a member of The Family, the once secretive fundamentalist organization now embroiled in, at last count anyway, something like three or four juicy sex scandals involving Bible thumping, 'family values' conservative politicians. Stupak was caught off guard and quickly distanced himself saying he 'just rents a room there' and didn't really belong to the so called Christian Mafia. So Ed called Jeff Sharlet, author of the definitive book on The Family, got a completely different take on Stupak's involvement, and reported both Stupak's claims and Sharlet's response at the Michigan Messenger. All well and good, except for one thing.
A tradmed reporter was also on the call. She hurriedly published Stupak's denials in the Detroit News online, did no research on their validity -- at least as far as her article demonstrates -- and published it without attributing Ed or linking him. Her report was, apparently, soon picked up by the Rachel Maddow show, which did have the presence of mind to feature Sharlet and, just as in Ed's article, Sharlet contradicted Stupak's claims. Again, because the reporter that scooped Ed didn't mention him or link his site, Ed (Who was extraordinarily gracious about the whole thing) probably missed out on national exposure on a highly rated, prime-time cables new program.
There's a lot of good, solid, gum shoe reporting done by beat journalists who never get half the credit they deserve. No question about it. And the point isn't so much that blogs can be better than traditional journalism. It's that blogs, at their best, are every bit as good and -- as amply shown in this case -- often better.