It may be tempting to view the
CBS News-Bush National Guard records brouhaha as blogs vs. mainstream media, where the bloggers won this round by exposing and publicizing what turned out to be faulty reporting by CBS. But the real story, I think, is that mainstream journalists from here on out have an army of citizen "reporters" and fact-checkers to watch over their work.
I suggest that journalists view this in a positive light: Citizen watchdogging and, yes, assistance can make traditional reporters' work better and more accurate. As
Dan Gillmor likes to say, "My readers know more than I do." More public input into reporters' work via this citizens' media brigade can improve news. It's not about undermining it.
While this is a Democratic forum, I find that there...
