Bloggers will eat your brains!

Jill at Femeniste [1] responds to Michael Skube's recent paranoid delusion op-ed in the LA Times [2]:

Take a deep breath and repeat after me: Bloggers do not want your job.

You seem to be under the impression that bloggers want to do away with the journalistic establishment, and that we want to replace it with an internet free-for-all. That may be what the right-wing, Fox-worshipping dingbats over at Instapundit or TownHall are fighting for, but for the most part, progressive bloggers don?t want to see the end of CNN or the New York Times or Newsweek. We just want you to do your job.

I think anyone who actually takes the time to explore the blogosphere earnestly knows that very few among us have journalistic aspirations.  Sure, we all do our fair share of fact-checking, some of us even taking the time to source a few stories.  But mostly, the only threat bloggers pose to journalists is in pointing out what we see as the most undesirable aspects of bias and dishonesty.  If others judge our arguments to be persuasive, why should that result in anything but an opportunity for journalists to remain true to impassioned discourse?

The work that journalists do is tough and tedious.  Besides the years of training it takes to master how to flesh out a story is bested only by tight and competitive deadlines made impossible by the endless fact-checking of minutia.  Personally, I applaud anyone dedicated enough to get the job done at all. 

That being said, journalism has traditionally been a unidirectional source of information.  The sheer size and distribution of the blogosphere means simply that the conversation has now become bilateral.  As consumers of their service, we have a right to demand the best possible for our money and time.  I would expect no less from the company who provides my webhosting - but that does not mean I want to take over their job!