The American Spectator

What Blogs Can't Do : p>As a Free Republic Pajama Person, I claim no desire to take over the responsibility of being a news collector. Are not reporters employed to “report” the news? Thanks to Al Gore's invention of the Internet, we have the resources to analyze and discuss the alpha networks' DNA. p>Our existence is the byproduct of the total abuse of mainstream media's own code of ethics. Consider the stain on Monica's blue dress the “shot heard 'round the world!” Until they wise up and report the truth and keep their own political leanings aside, they are going to feel like a naked man at a proctologist's convention. BR>— Alan Jackson BR>Martinez, Georgia p>If Lawrence Henry was ever right about blogs, he is already wrong. Many of the leading blogs do have a major beat. Many bloggers do perform significant original fact reporting and investigating. Henry's critique of the blog-as-personal-diary is misplaced because (a) that is not (and never was) the paradigmatic news-related blog and (b) that genre does include some quality journalism. And as for resources, the larger blogs are attracting significant paid advertising. p>Lastly, the crack about blatant self-regard among bloggers is silly. The celebration in the blogosphere over Rathergate is far less self-regarding that the corresponding counterwave of pompous Tom Oliphantish prose about just how darn “professional” Old Media folks think themselves to be. Lazy self-regard and arrogant dismissal of criticism is still the province of Old Media. That is the root cause of Rathergate. p>Paid journalism and newsgathering will continue but it will have to become more specialized and professional to survive and adapt. When the revolution is complete, the lazy, politicized, liberal-yuppie generalist who today gets to produce lazy formulaic attacks in print and on the air will no longer rise to the status of senior reporter or editor. He or she will be the one at home in pajamas, unpaid and ranting into unvisited cyberspace. BR>— George Tobin BR>North Potomac, Maryland p>You gotta be kidding me! p>”The public wants to know some certain things on a regular and predictable basis: Whether a storm is coming…” The Weather Channel is available on the Internet, and updated hourly.