The bloggers on the bus and how they've changed political journalism
In The New York Times Magazine cover story, Matthew Klam asks whether bloggers are "ruining political journalism or recharging it?" The story is an interesting read, but focuses more on the personalities than the question, except to say, "This summer, sitting in the Tank (the campaign bus) and reading campaign blogs, you could sometimes get a half-giddy, half-sickening feeling that something was shifting, that the news agenda was beginning to be set by this largely unpaid, T-shirt-clad army of bloggers." Toward the end, Klam is fairly critical of the bloggers' coverage of the conventions. "With their new form of journalism, at once smaller and larger than the mainstream, they planned to bring politics back to the people. But those first few posts, so highly anticipated by their fellow bloggers, the ones who didn't score credentials, were more about the bus ride from the hotel, the heavy security in the parking lot; their seats in the rafters were terrible, they had trouble getting floor passes and, anyway, out on the floor, who would they talk to?"
Worth reading, though, for the narrative sections on Ana Marie Cox, who runs Wonkette.com; Markos Moulitsas, who runs the blog Daily Kos; and Joshua Micah Marshall, who runs Talking Points Memo.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit was James P. Rubin, John Kerry's foreign-policy adviser, said about the blogs, ''They're the first thing I read when I get up in the morning and the last thing I read at night.''
By the way, 87 percent of readers responding to The New York Times' Web survey asking "Have blogs changed the political culture for the better or for the worse?" say its changed it for the better.
Sep 27, 2004 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(2)
Discussion
2 comments about 'The bloggers on the bus and how they've changed political journalism'Have blogs changed the landscape of political and non-political journalism? Yes. For better or worse? For better: By holding the feet of the 'objective' news media to the accountability fire bloggers are making the news media do what they have refused to do for so long, owing to a lack or morals and ethics:
Their job.
Posted by James C. Hess at October 20, 2004 4:14 PM
excellent
Posted by norbert chiazor at May 21, 2005 5:14 AM
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