Breaching the barrier: Blogger versus Traditional Media on C-SPAN

Rayne Today

Witness yet another breach in the barrier between blogging and traditional media as our intrepid Emptywheel goes up against Byron York on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this moring.  You can watch for a replay on C-SPAN, or catch a video here:

C-SPAN Washington Journal 26-JAN-07

Description: Marcy Wheeler & Byron York, National Review

Marcy Wheeler, Author, "Anatomy of Deceit" & Byron York, National Review, White House Correspondent talk about the CIA leak case. Both are following the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby closely. They discuss look at the revelations of the first week, the importance of the case, and the possible long-term impact on the Bush Administration.

1/26/2007: WASHINGTON, DC: 41 min.

Marcy obviously has a better grasp on the facts, while Byron treats them as detritus that can be scraped off one's shoes.  Byron misses that it is his job to be better informed than we, the readers and viewers; if he isn't better informed and is cavalier about the facts, what are we really getting for our media expenditures?

Is media irrelevant when we can do better coverage ourselves?

This morning's program demonstrates a growing challenge to the blogging community; the non-blogging community has difficulty making the distinction between a paid, corporate-published journalist and an unpaid civilian that self-publishes their findings and opinions.  At least one of the callers on this morning's C-SPAN Washington Journal had to be corrected by Marcy when they conflated her role with that of York's and other media personalities.

Is it possible this blurring of distinctions will increase as the U.S. vs. Libby trial continues?

More importantly, testimony given yesterday during the Libby trial by Cathie Martin, VP Cheney's former press spokesperson, makes it clear that traditional media had been co-opted by the administration for the purposes of  manipulating public perception.  If the non-blogging public is hard-pressed to distiguish citizen-bloggers from media, will they believe we bloggers are all of us mouthpieces for someone other than ourselves?

Food for thought; we'll need to be prepared to deal with this lack of differentiation.

By the way, you are missing some of the most intense and exciting live blogging if you are not checking in at FireDogLake.com, Monday through Thursday as the proceedings continue.  Marcy does a fantastic job with her play-by-play; having been a chat room host for AOL, I can tell you that Marcy is burning up the keyboard, typing much faster than most professional secretaries I know.  (You go, Marcy!)

[cross-posted at MichiganLiberal.com and Rayne Today.]