April 2005 Issue
Who Let The Blogs Out?
Joe Malchow '08Weblogs, or blogs for short, are undeniably in the national consciousness this year. Journalists have denounced blogs, the lexicographers have embraced them, and the data-hungry masses do not quite know what to make of them. Certainly, traditional information outlets—radio, television, and print—have been quick on the draw to marginalize this new medium as little more than networked propaganda. But the public isn’t buying that verdict just yet.
Here’s what existed before the blogging revolution. In the early 20th century, news media was a collection of sects—the Al Frankens on one side, the Rush Limbaughs on the other. There was a rag for every little partisan soul. Motivations inside these operations consisted primarily of money and currying favor with one’s political benefactors.
And then a wave of professionalism broke up the old ways of the industry. In 1936, 51 percent of journalists had college degrees. By 1961, it was up to 81 percent. The goal became objectivity with the publication of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Canons of Journalism in 1922, which stated that news reports should be “free from opinion or bias of any kind.” This led inexorably to the glorification of the journalist. Reporters fancied themselves master whistle-blowers and scoop-getters, and reporting became a bland game of “gotcha.” Worse, the overall political tenor inside newsrooms tipped wildly off-balance. Real, honest journalism withered away, even as reporters sought to bulwark their superficial grandeur. Eighty-three years after the ASNE report, journalists still cannot satisfy the simple principles of journalism.
We can postulate why they have failed: there is no such thing as a professional journalist. “Reporting” is just a collection of facts about a single object or event. It requires using a few human senses and barely a modicum of cognitive ability. Yet, massive amounts of capital have gone into setting the idea of journalism on a sort of holy pedestal. Posh journalism schools mold budding students into full-fledged journalists, complete with insider cant and a wealth of acronyms. In the end, however, it doesn’t take all that much to write, “Four men robbed a bank on Main Street last night.” What Columbia really teaches in its ‘J-school’ is how to act like a journalist. It confers upon graduates an iron framework that suits them perfectly to a position at any big newspaper: liberalism, cynicism, anger and arrogance. Such characteristics wouldn’t be cause for concern if they were balanced with contrasting views within the news establishment, but they are not. “Liberal media” is a vicious cycle, and it is worse now than it ever has been. With the advent of “news analysis,” personal opinion bleeds unabated onto the front page of almost every major daily. Professional journalism today means being biased, and proclaiming the opposite to heaven, earth, and anyone who will listen.
A car salesman has an interest in selling his cars. Knowing that, his customers are somewhat prepared to measure his words for their veracity. But what if societal mores dictated that every car salesman was also an official vehicle adjudicator? The Saab salesman would be fully expected to point you to Ford if his cars aren’t as good. This pretense, however, dominates the mainstream media. It is a faire semblant whose demise is nigh.
Conservatives have long veered away from the mainstream press. A 2003 study jointly conducted by researchers at UCLA, Stanford University and the University of Chicago found “significant liberal bias” in mainstream news. Considering who was interviewed and which think-tanks cited, the report concluded that, “most of the mainstream media outlets… were closer to the average Democrat in Congress than they were to the median member of the House.”
The tides now turn towards blogs, which can be considered a resurgence of the partisan media of the past, with a twist: transparency. Blogs contrast the monolithic media with a dynamic reporting system. Personal biases are stated upfront. Readers of blogs usually know the author’s real name, his educational background, his day job, his political sensibilities and even a few facts about his personal life. Corrections to blog posts are usually made via reader feedback, almost instantaneously. Differing views on other sources are generally noted. Being able to balance information within context is the hallmark of the blogosphere (as the world of blogs is called). Its underpinning is its size: there are millions of extant blogs. A small percentage of the general public, yet a force larger than any newsroom, is considered part of the blogosphere: an immense coterie of citizen journalists who highlight important news articles, share opinions, conduct research and gather news that coincides with their everyday lives. The blogosphere is the ultimate democratized news-media, driven by a free market, a laissez-faire democracy. And just like the United States’ form of government, blogs will win the battle against the media establishment.
Natural market forces propel the best bloggers to the fore. The most trusted blogs have become the most popular. Currently, the daily readership of four blogs maintained by a law professor, a trio of attorneys, an El Salvadorian technology worker and a former economist, respectively, is on par with that of The Washington Post, and slightly less than The New York Times, according to the website www.truthlaidbear.com. And not a single scrap of paper is used. When we consider the top 100 blogs, most written by intelligent professional adults, their readership dwarfs that of the two largest American newspapers, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
The immediate effects of blogs cannot be ignored. The blogosphere has forced the resignations of Jeff Gannon, a Talon News reporter accused of conservative bias; Eason Jordan, the CNN news chief with a history of anti-military behavior who recently accused the American military of “targeting” American reporters; and Dan Rather, long considered the most biased and unprofessional journalist in the industry, who used obviously forged documents in an attack on President Bush. But blogs are not a “lynch mob” as some in the mainstream media have claimed. Their exposing of malfeasance in the traditional news-media is a byproduct of liberal takeover of the media. Read a blog, and it will quickly become clear that something worthwhile is going on inside the blogosphere.
The world’s first truly democratized form of news-gathering is here to stay. Its power looms, sapping the caustic tongues of big-media wolves baying for blood. The blogosphere has already won philosophically. The one question that remains is: when will the ivory tower of professional journalism fall?