Quoting criticism
: The NY Times today covers the small furor caused by CNN’s admission — on the Times Op-Ed page — that it withheld revelations on Iraqi brutality in the interest of its own staff and its own coverage of Baghdad. The story quotes professors. If they were wise, they’d quote weblogs — not just because the weblogs were the first to jump on the story (it happened so fast that I was left out because I was away from my computer for a few hours that day) but also because the weblogs are far more quotable than profs. The story is boring. The blogs were not.
If I ran a paper, I’d have reporters reading weblogs and forums all the time. The closer you get to quoting the people (not the obvious spokesmen and professors and retired thises and thats) the closer you get to getting the real story.