If you can read this>> you can be a journalist

One of the funny things about reading some print journalists try to “get” blogs is just how bad their information is. You wonder whether an article was written three months ago and just stuck in the can or whether the journalists just don’t bother to read the blogs they write about.

Take, for example, the Washington Post’s latest report on blogging. Opines the scribe: “while blogs are a significant publishing phenomenon, I see them as entirely different from professional news organizations, which have paid staffs that ferret out and vet information according to established principles of fairness, accuracy and truth.”

Hmm. The final paragraph notes that “people are pushing the boundary of blogging formats.” For example, “CityBlogs.com is pioneering an attempt at locally oriented blogging in New York City.” OK. Click on CityBlogs.com and discover that the site, launched in November 2002, hasn’t been updated since December 17, 2002. Why didn’t the Post get one of its “paid staff to ferret out and vet” the fact that CityBlogs has been shuttered longer than it was open?

Dave Winer, who was interviewed for the story, has some further thoughts.