What would Mean Old Man do?
Bitch Ph.D. caught my attention again. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs. I have my own thoughts about this story of stupid plagiarism, especially since I have two children in college -- both doing their own work I hope.
For some reason this story reminds me of something Mean Old Man might do for fun. I want to know what my some of my journalism pals think. Not just about the plagiarism.
Do you think bloggers act like journalist, without the journalistic integrity or standards? Are bloggers nothing more than Gonzo-journalist wannabes? Was Hunter S. Thompson an ahead-of-his-time blogger?
Talk to me!
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3 comments:
I think it's an entertaining story but it seems a bit on the psycho side. Then again, I've done some psycho stuff in my day. I dunno.
I want more from you Twinkie. What about bloggers being the new journalist. Is this just an extension of gonzo journalism?
In so much as I am allowed to speak to young journalists (fools once paid me $100 a week to do so, you know), I often tell them that the most important perspective for a "reporter" is to remember how much they don't know about a story.
I've often been rebuked by acolytes of the NY Times-driven theory on reporting that after a few hours of interviews, you are a expert on any given topic and are so entitled to publish your conclusions (whatever their merits might be) as points of fact. Really, that's the theory -- I'm not making this up.
The most cutting evidence I've seen of this theory was the "apology" The Times ran for its pre-War build up coverage. It couldn't run a retraction, because it didn't print anything that was demonstrably false. It just decided later that the tenor of its reporters' conclusions were askew. This of course is driven by the hubris that would tell newspaper reporters that they somehow have the capacity to be "experts" on matters of international intelligence -- like they have their own spy satellites our something.
My favorite (by that, I sarcastically mean "least favorite") term for "blogger" is "citizen journalist." I often ask folks when they plan on visiting Citizen Dentists.
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