So what is it?
Rayne Today
It's one big pile on lately, push media of all kinds piling on blogging. It's not journalism, they yell; It is too!, they scream.
The Wall Street Journal posts a column on the payment of two bloggers by the Dean for America campaign, based on former campaign team member Zephyr Teachout's "disclosure" that both Jerome Armstrong of MyDD and Kos Moulitsas of DailyKos received money to support Dean.
A scurry and kerfuffle ensue in the wake, media-types and bloggers nagging about the lack of adequate disclosure.
Wait a minute...I thought blogging wasn't journalism? I know I've heard this in more than one place, from more than one source. Why are bloggers -- people who write from and are motivated by a perspective of personal interest -- being held to a different standard than paid journalists?
Those of us who read MyDD and DailyKos BEFORE the Dean Campaign hit its stride already knew the personal biases of Jerome and Kos; they wore their hearts on their sleeves. They still do, nearly ten months after Dean's campaign ended. Do those of us who read their blogs really need or expect disclosure?
And if blogging is journalism, who's going to post that announcement across the entire blogosphere, telling every 16-year-old around the world writing about the contents of their iPod that they have an ethic to which they must adhere? Who's going to enforce that edict?
So what's the real issue here, once the dust settles? Those of us who consume both blogs and media regularly are already well aware that every writer, journalist or blogger, has an agenda, a perspective or motivation. Some of it is corporate-driven, like that of the mainstream media; some of it isn't, like that of non-corporate bloggers. What's the real motivation behind WSJ's column, or for that matter, Zephyr's originating post?
I already know what motivated Jerome and Kos before, during and after the Dean Campaign.
In the case of WSJ, I think they and much of the rest of push media can feel the noose tightening and are starting to chafe more than a bit at the prospects of the rise of postmodern personal media from the accumulating ashes of modern mainstream media. For too long now traditional forms of broadcast have failed to serve the needs of the public and instead served their corporate masters' bidding. If any group has been less transparent than necessary, it's mainstream broadcast media (Sinclair, anyone?).
What about you, fellow blogger and blog reader? What do you think? Is blogging expected to follow ethics or no? If so, when and why?