Who’s afraid of the big, bad blogger
: Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman writes today that he’s afraid of bloggers. Not shivering in his boots but fearful nonetheless about all the usual qualms: are we journalists, are we trustworthy, etc., etc.
Let me try to put your mind at ease, Jon. Stop thinking of us as bloggers. Think of us as plain people — readers, men-on-the-street, sources — who happen to blog. That’s all we really are: the people. And the people know stuff. So it’s good you now have a way to find out what we know. If you use it wisely, it will improve your reporting because you’ll know more and then your readers will know more and then we’ll all hug and light our Bics and sing.
By the way, for anyone coming here from Jon’s column, there’s an error in it: It says that Bill Keller of The Times has asked his editors to get together with bloggers to talk about all this. I’m the one who asked that, not Bill. But you can read our email exchange here.
