“Bloggers are not journalists, they are too partisan and Andrew Sullivan is more partisan than most.”

Last I checked there was a rather inherent media bias and journalist were not immune. People are people, bloggers and journalist alike have thoughts. Bias will show through either way, this is not a legitimate argument against blogging as journalism.

– Scott

The papers and magazines seem to represent a free rider problem. Like the classic lighthouse or even a bridge or a road, a lot of us benefit if the NY Times or Atlantic continue to employ smart people to inform us, whether through their site or links to their from places like Google News. But I can’t keep either afloat on my own.

The solution historically is a tax on all of us to provide the bridge: we all will benefit and no one can get the benefits without the costs.

In this case, perhaps the tax should be applied to the ISPs in proportion to their market share – cable and phone companies in effect are obtaining the benefit from us stealing Andrew’s wit (especially the case when we run ad blockers!). They therefore should pay the sites/institutions who provide us the goodies.

While I have been called a Marxist, and still deny it, I think it all comes down to dineros.

As long as alternative media is easily accessible and people still have confirmation bias, journalism will never be what it once was.

I would agree there are few if any rating agency, but I feel that one would be of great service. The Do Good Gauge is an abstract to develop a democratic method for measuring the worth of a journalist argument. The abstract is published at http://www.dogoodgauge.org.

As I have come to suspect, it appears the only way I can get a right of reply after being defamed across the British press over a relationship I had with one of the richest men in England, Bruno Schroder, is to start my own blog and say what I have to say.

In many of the articles, including some that were syndicated to the US, I have been maliciously libeled. None of the press, broadsheets and tabloids alike, would publish a correction and apology, never sufficient in any event, unless I filed a lawsuit.

It is just unbelievable from an American point of view. My respect for the British press has plummeted. What happened to a fair and balanced press?

I am grateful to Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times for pointing out in a column over the summer, just how inaccurate most of the British press is.

It is unfair in this day and age, when The European Court of Human Rights has declared that a right to a reputation is a human right, that I have to go through stressful legal action to resolve this.

So, after listening to your show, it appears starting a blog is the most efficient and least expensive way for me to counter the bias and unfairness of the British press that refuses to give me a right of reply. At least it will be picked up by Google.

Now I better understand why there was an American Revolution!

TO Steve, let’s get the facts straight, shall we? Both Sen. Biden and Sen. McCain have already released their medical records, which is why I focused on the manner in which Mr. Sullivan is pursuing Gov. Palin’s and thoroughly uninterested in Sen. Obama’s.

Remember, the headline for yesterday’s show had to do with whether bloggers can “save” journalism. So, let’s be clear: what Mr. Sullivan has been up to in this case is not journalism. If he wants to carry the flag for a candidate, that’s fine – at worst this would be a kind of bias. But the tactics he’s using – posting paternity rumor and innuendo based on no evidence – in order to achieve the political outcome he desires are rank.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com is quite a good electoral college tracker but just like the rest, it’s a blog and while he aggregates polls, both national and state, he attempts to take the bias out of them with his own secret sauce. That makes it subjective even though it seems to be more objective.

I happen to agree with what he’s doing and he does make it clear, but some won’t.

All news sources are subjective, blogs and The NewsHour and everything in between. There are some traditional news sources that cross the line (FOX) and there are some blogs that do less of it (fivethirtyeight).

Like Andrew said, the wisdom of crowds is worth paying attention to and it’s up to each of us to decide which information we want to look at and which we think don’t. This has always been although in the days of Cronkite it was less apparent.

I have hundreds of cable channels but I only watch a few and I’ve got the entire web of sites with information on them and I only check about 10 daily.

No one has brought up RSS and newsreaders in this discussion. I can’t live without NetNewsWire, news reader aggregators are the best way to track this stuff, including this site.

Blogging popularity runs on a true market economy model, which gives currency to what people want. However, the problem with market economies, as our economic crisis shows, is that what people want might not be in their best interests. People want celebrity-based gimmicks and opinions that are funny or emotional. But that doesn’t actually help us stay informed. We also want stuff for free. Blogging helps that especially because of the easy replicability of blogging–cut and paste, or better yet, feed.

This will not lead to real in-the-field reporting, fact checking, accountability, etc. I’m worried that if news goes all blog, it will just be the Daily Show (humor) v. Fox News (outrage) models of journalism. That’s easy to make, cheap, and palatable.

Citizen journalists are already on the scene, across the globe, able to report faster and often with more personal insight than someone repurposing a wirefeed.

As a 6 or 7 year veteran reader of Sullivan I can honestly say this is the most one-sided he has been since the build-up of the Iraq War (which he supported). His pro-Kerry blogging in the ‘04 campaign was much more thoughtful than this worship/kill style he has taken up with Obama/McCain(HRC) ‘08.

It seems he decided to back Obama about a year ago and ever since then has put his hands on his ears and his eyes closed when it comes to potential Obama criticism (anyone, and I mean anyone…can see right through his little Biden medical request vs. his chiding, mocking, and always pessimistic tone toward McCain/Palin/HRC).

…Just look at the silly God-like pictures he uses for any of his Obama posts. It’s sad to say it, but he has crossed the line since the Palin announcement and is now a cartoon-like writer that has lost his ability to inform. I click in to his blog now more than ever just to see to what new depths he has sunk to. It’s a real shame.