At last, some common sense from MSM
Duncan Riley> Perhaps the tide is turning as members of the main stream media start to realise that bloggers are friends and not the sons of satan, with a few articles slowly emerging from MSM journalists who do not have strong relationship with bloggers or IT defending the blogosphere.
Chcuk Raasch from US Today writes in “Blogs good for democracy, but fairness needed” one of the more common sense articles I’ve read.
he states: ” The blogosphere is the real-time cacophony of democracy – some of it brilliant, some mundane, some libelous or downright dumb.”
Yes, he gets it! Unlike a number of his collegues he doesn’t make the mistake of making a one-size-fits-all statement on the blogosphere, and recognises the diversity in the medium.
He goes on: “But if you are looking for anti-blog screed from a journalist baptized in the media mainstream, you won’t get it here. Tom Paine was a blogger. Jefferson and Franklin wrote so many letters during and after the revolution that they were bloggers, too. Anything that stretches and exercises the muscle of the First Amendment is good for democracy over the long haul.”
But its not all plain sailing, and he writes that bloggers need to consider a “code of transparency” that discloses conflicts of interest. A good common sense idea. So much so that the next post will detail my disclosures. Its something that been written about by many of late, but its now time to lead by example.