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Who’s afraid of the big, bad blogger

14 comments on Who’s afraid of the big, bad blogger

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.

14 responses to “Who’s afraid of the big, bad blogger”

  1. Hovig Avatar
    Hovig

    Jeff – I’m not sure you answered the question. I think the more general fear is that certain people will wield undue influence over the populace, like snake-oil salesmen or charlatans; or cause fast-raging panics, like someone yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. The idea is that while a journalist may or may not be a more sensible or intelligent person than someone on the street, they are under great professional scrutiny.
    As an investor — and assuming from the fact that he’s writing in Marketwatch that Friedman is too — I can entirely understand the fear. He opens the floor to the subject here: “That means, as the saying goes, they’ll throw their content against a wall, and if it sticks, they’ll publish it, no matter how wild or trivial it might be.”
    Imagine one day an influential blogger wakes up and decides to write about an “inside source” he knows at Big Company Incorporated that “revealed anonymously” to him — because he’s afraid for his job, natch — that his company is involved in some highly scandalous behavior? The blogger might be lying, or credulous, or ideologically slanted (thus intellectually blinded on this issue), or just insufficiently caffeinated that particular day. Stuff happens.
    But after the entire stock market crashes, it’s not likely that the blogger’s “whoops, sorry, that’ll teach me to blog before breakfast” is going to help everyone get back on their feet. I had a psychology student once tell me that when you call a person at midnight and tell them “your family just died in a car crash,” you’ve created such a strong psychological reaction that even if it turns out to be untrue later, the person will always carry a little trauma in their mind about it.
    The only answer to the question we can give is that we have to hope that over time, the truth will win, because at some point, someone online will say something more true than someone else, and this truth will hold up to reality more than other statements, and people will converge around this truth.
    But how to answer the question of scurrilous statements whose impact is felt immediately, I’m not so sure.

  2. Christy Avatar
    Christy

    It is increasingly obvious that anti-blog hysterics think that we the readers are unable to discern who is full of, er, garbage and who is credible without the guidance of the MSM. Ain’t that a hoot!

  3. Ruth Avatar
    Ruth

    Hovig:
    Object lesson. The pharmaceutical companies that have just released a MS drug which they touted as an incredible advance in treatment of the disease (multiple slerosis), have just withdrawn it because of the death of a patient. Now, the MSM was given a release by these companies. The MSM hailed the truly amazing new avenue of treatment. Sufferers from MS drew a great deal of hope. The MSM released the discouraging truths that followed, and sufferers from MS are saddened.
    Now, was it irresponsible to release NEWs that turned out to be partially inaccurate? Or the followup? And if things occur on blogs that turn out to be not the final story, it is caught and revised by a thousand bloggers. Is that less or more responsible?
    Notice this is a question. No one blogger will pretend to infallibility. And no thousand bloggers would let them.

  4. tb Avatar
    tb

    Those afraid of bloggers are likely equally afraid of free speech.
    An unrelated observation, I notice that the right wing blogs I tend to visit have no comment facility (power line, Glenn, sullivan) while a large number of the left leaning blogs have comment sections like this one. I visit more left leaning blogs so maybe this is coincidence, but I have noticed this difference.

  5. Skate Avatar
    Skate

    I’ve heard a number of criticisms of bloggers on that same point: how can we trust bloggers since they are not associated with a big organization? But, as Jeff says, bloggers are people. In everyday life we give credibility to individuals. Some individuals earn our trust, some don’t *cough*mattdrudge*cough*powerline*cough*anncoulter*cough*bobnovak*cough*cough*.
    As we can see from FOX news and Gannongate, the association of journalists with a large organization is no sign that they should be trustworthy. And I think Jeff has shown himself to be credible on his own.
    It is ironic that the same people who criticize bloggers as being of questionable credibility are often hosts of pundant shows where individuals are brought on for their extreme views. Why they should think that these partisan extremists are more credible than someone who has a blog is something I can’t fathom.

  6. htom Avatar
    htom

    It’s the idea that “people know stuff” that they find frightening. This idea destroys their business model — being the pipe from “the authority” to “the masses”. Fifty years ago, when the press operated by having reporters who knew stuff going out and finding out stuff, bloggers would not have been threatening. The press has changed to having staff who skim press releases from “those who know”, and that “people who know stuff” are disrespecting their pipe by publishing without charging for it is just too much to put up with.

  7. Aurora Avatar
    Aurora

    Another provacative post by Mr. Jarvis. This half-wit makes the whole blogosphere look bad. It’s like reading the blog of your accountant uncle, who happens to love thumping his own chest.
    Jeff, you invented one crummy magazine and wrote reviews for another. Please, stop blogging. Please.

  8. Skate Avatar
    Skate

    Arurora wrote:
    “Please, stop blogging. Please.”
    Oh my, yes, clearly Jeff is less credible than you, an anonymous comment poster with an axe to grind. Yup, he’s the problem. And he writes a blog so uselessness that you feel compelled to read it and respond to it. Hmm….
    I disagree with Jeff on many points. But I’m very interested in the issues he posts and I think his arguments are cogent, sincere and, most of all, credible. One of my top blogs, even when I think he is wrong.

  9. von Avatar
    von

    Another provacative post by Mr. Jarvis. This half-wit makes the whole blogosphere look bad. It’s like reading the blog of your accountant uncle, who happens to love thumping his own chest.
    Jeff, you invented one crummy magazine and wrote reviews for another. Please, stop blogging. Please.
    Jeff: Wow, maybe you should implement that “bot-stopping” function. Those bots are getting insulting! :)

  10. richard Avatar
    richard

    It makes me feel warm and toasty inside knowing that any one of us, bloggers that is, can make the puppet masters feel uneasy. And also – why shouldn’t the mainstream journalists take note of us, as Mr. Jarvis pointed out, we are the man-on-the-street, the everyday person. If the journalists truly want to report real news they should take heed and use this medium to its fullest.

  11. J. Peden Avatar
    J. Peden

    Well, I am reluctantly having to say now that I completely agree with Skate and Ruth, above. I’m glad I let them live.

  12. David Crisp Avatar
    David Crisp

    I’m still struggling with the notion that big bloggers are any more “just people” than professional journalists are. Let’s see: Just off the top of my head, without a speck of research, so you can all beat me up if I’m wrong —
    Jeff Jarvis — big media background.
    Glenn Reynolds — law professor.
    Mickey Kaus — big media.
    Andrew Sullivan — (mostly) big media.
    Kevin Drum — small but prestige media.
    Powerline — not sure. A lawyer and a banker, right?
    Hewitt — radio host.
    Morrisey — call center manager. Poor guy.
    Rosen — journalism professor.
    Lileks — regional media.
    Simon — screenwriter and novelist.
    Postrel — author and editor.
    Welch — editor?
    Alterman — author and columnist
    Wonkette — wonkette.
    Perhaps someone can tell me: Who among the big bloggers is anymore “plain people” than a guy covering the cops for a big city daily?

  13. EverKarl Avatar
    EverKarl

    I’m not going to beat David up, but I do have a few corrections — or at least quibbles. Sullivan occasionally writes for Time now, but both he and Kaus came out of The New Republic, which I would class as “small, but prestige media.” Powerline actually has three bloggers; David’s right about two of them, but I don’t recall offhand what Deacon’s day job is. And Wonkette actually worked for the Chronicle of Higher Education (no, really) and wrote for Suck, (iirc, though any mistake there would be understandable, wouldn’t it?)
    I also suppose it depends on who one defines as a big blogger Yglesias was a student at Harvard who parleyed blogging into a gig with The American Prospect. Patterico blogged his criticism of the L.A. Times long enough to be invited by that paper to do a column criticizing it (as did Kaus). Many of the well-know milbloggers lack a media background also.
    Finally, think the dichotomy between journalists and bloggers as “just plain folks” arises from the notion that journalism is now considered a credentialed profession. However, I think David’s point should be kept in mind by the Jonathan Kleins of the world, who would like to dismiss bloggers as guys sitting around in their PJ’s. The fact is that a number of the major bloggers have media chops, or are better educated and possibly have skill sets that most professional journalists lack. They are people whom the MSM dismisses at their own peril.

  14. richard mcenroe Avatar
    richard mcenroe

    There’s also Ed Morrissey, of Captain’s Quarters, scorned as a mere “manager of a call center”, but who has done some first-rate work…
    And Dennis the Peasant, a CPA…