Porland Oregonian Public Editor Michael Arrieta-Walden says readers routinely call or write “to cite stories they’ve seen blazing the Web but that are missing or downplayed on the newspaper’s news pages.”
While they often blame right-wing or left-wing conspiracies, in fact “whether those stories gain traction in the news pages of The Oregonian often depends on whether wire services, including those of the major newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post or Los Angeles Times, report on them.
“The gap goes to the heart of what is journalism. Opinions, commentary or simply rumors dominate many of the blogs. Yet blogs also can break legitimate stories, such as the one that led to the downfall of Dan Rather. Newspaper and wire-service journalists grapple with distinguishing between the rants and the real news, and must confirm the information using standards of accuracy and verification rarely applied to blogs….”
He does note, though, “Bloggers often recognize potential stories that will spark reader sensibilities that veteran journalists are too blase about.”
The solution, he says, might be for newspapers to find ways to link up with citizen blogging; for reporters and editors to more routinely checking blogs as tip sheets; or for a publication to devote a writer to monitor blogs for a column that could “point readers to the wheat and warn them about the chaff.”
