What is a blog and what is a news site? Are they one and the same? Do people know the difference? In this shifting media industry and landscape what can a person trust and believe? Are blogs credible sources of news?
Blogs are generally opinionated commentary. Sometimes a blog provides original reporting but more often than not the writing on someone’s blog is the author’s take or personal viewpoints. Are they credible sources of news? Yes, but only if you understand that the blogger is probably opinionated and not sticking with the general rules of journalism, which are that fairness and balance are required.
(What does it mean to be fair and balanced is a whole other issue, not to be discussed in this post.)
It makes sense that some people think blogs can’t be trusted. But just because big media is mainstream and the norm, why are they trusted? A lot more fibbing and stretching of the truth occurs on Fox News than on many popular, so-called “liberal” blogs.
The problem is that the term “blog” referrs to so much, and online there are no standards that must be abided by. Some popular and highly regarded sites like The Huffington Post and The Politico probably have guidelines for their bloggers but there are many others out there that are merely one person with a microphone. It’s a giant swampland for the user. And it’s easy to see why people don’t trust because they just aren’t sure who they can trust.
Bloggers themselves seem to understand this completely and therefore believe blogs are credible. Arianna Huffington, a liberal blogger and the powerhouse behind the Huffington Post, says that bloggers are often quicker to correct mistakes and because they are not entrenched with the mainstream media they can be more critical.
Saul Hansell, who writes the Bits blog at NYTimes.com, says bloggers for The New York Times are held to the same standards as print reporters. This is a clear example of how different a “blog” run by The New York Times is from a “blog” run by an un-trained journalist from their kitchen. One is held to standards and another isn’t. It’s up to the reader to figure out what is “truthful” and what isn’t. (Of course, there is always the chance that the kitchen blogger is just as truthful, but their job doesn’t depend on it.)
Josh Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo, won a George Polk award. He was the first blogger to receive the award, evidence of the power and truthfulness of the site. He won the award for reporting on the firing of U.S. Attorneys that eventually led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
What is interesting is that while Marshall did some original reporting on the story, a lot of what he did was synthesize other news reports and link to them. Eventually the mainstream media caught wind of what he was doing and the government had to answer for itself.
The site “connected the dots and found a pattern of federal prosecutors being forced from office for failing to do the Bush administration’s bidding,” read the Polk citation, reported The New York Times.
Those that think blogs cannot be trusted, not surprisingly, are mainly old-school media types. Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize winner and former New York Times reporter, says many bloggers treat facts and opinions the same.
Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/US, says bloggers have “no checks and balances.”
The internet is kind of like a frontier. There are no boundaries and few rules. The power is in the hands of the reader to figure out what thyey believe and what they don’t.