Miller Defends Blogosphere Against Rago’s Attacks

Rich Miller has a column at the Chicago Sun-Times responding to Joseph Rago’s attack on the blogosphere which I discussed earlier this week. I had noted that some of the same attacks which Rago makes on the blogosphere also apply to the mainstream media. Miller also appears to realize this when he asks, “What is it about the Internet that makes some political pundits, columnists and reporters so goofy? It seems like almost every time I read a mainstream media story about political Web sites and bloggers, the pieces are full of ill-informed junk.”

Miller gives some examples of poor coverage of the blogosphere by the mainstream media, and also notes the diversity among bloggers:

I don’t think Rago has spent much time on blogs or he’d know that several specialize in, and are very good at, taking on complex topics that the mainstream media barely skim. Others promote citizen reporting that is often better than anything you’ll find in a newspaper. Others are hilariously funny, on purpose, and others are drenched in irony.

Look, there’s a lot of bizarre behavior on the Internet. And there’s no shortage of vitriol, either. Some people are just strange. But much of the harsh language about politicians and the reporters and columnists who cover them are more than justified…

This phenomenon is not going away, no matter how much it is dismissed or chastised. The Internet has been seized on as a democratizing tool by millions of perpetually democracy-hungry Americans. Bloggers should definitely be open to criticism by the mainstream media. That’s America. But lumping everyone together with the crackpots is neither fair nor honest. And the fact that so many reporters and pundits can’t seem to get the story right just proves the bloggers’ point that too many of them don’t know what they’re talking about on everything else.

1 Comment

  1. 1
    kj says:

    “And the fact that so many reporters and pundits can’t seem to get the story right just proves the bloggers’ point that too many of them don’t know what they’re talking about on everything else.”

    hahaha! That pretty well sums the argument up, imo. 😉

    The internet(s) are the wild wild west of the information age. Everybody’s got a six-gun, or access to one and yeah, there are a few hysterically funny traveling circus shows as well.

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