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Calling a Jerk a Jerk

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Who Cares About the Personal Side?

9/3/2002 9:28:54 AM
Posted By: Eric Michaels

I don't mean to belabor the point, but Steve's "defense" of his comment is just more maddening than the original post. Sure, Weblogs can bring out the "personal" side of a journalist, but so what? Good journalism isn't about personality, and it's not even about the byline. It's about the story, plain and simple. When the reporter becomes just as important (or more important) than the reporting, we're headed for trouble.

In my defense

8/30/2002 3:41:25 PM
Posted By: Steve Outing

Responding to comments below: OK, maybe Dan's "jerks" rant wasn't the ideal example. But I stand by my contention that weblogs can bring out the more "personal" side of a journalist. They can help readers get to know a journalist, and what he/she really thinks. I think there's value in that -- in having the journalist be more than a byline. (Obviously, this is better for a columnist than a reporter who needs to maintain an air of impartiality.)

That's journalism?

8/30/2002 3:31:20 PM
Posted By: Joe Karius

Knee-jerk, name-calling hardly qualifies as a new mode of "casual" journalism. It's no better than the talk radio of the 90s where guys like Ruch Limbaugh could just go off on subject without adhering to the basic tenets of true journalism.
I classify this Internet babble in the same category as those unsigned comments some newspapers ran.
Responsible journalism has nothing to do with catering to the lowest common denominator.

Expression???

8/30/2002 8:58:30 AM
Posted By: Eric Michaels

Since when did we decide that a reporter's personal "expression" was the pinnacle of journalism? Frankly, that's one of the problems with the industry today -- from talk radio to cable-news network to increasingly self-referential newspaper writers, we're seeing people who are too busy pontificating about what's going on to spend any real time covering it.

What's the point?

8/30/2002 4:58:47 AM
Posted By: Rick Brown

At the very least, an editor could have asked the author, "Would you care to elaborate on that?" For those who didn't click through to the original commentary, Steve quoted the entire thing. That was it. Why bother wasting readers' time with an obvious conclusion that hackers are jerks? That's about as insightful as posting "me too!" in response to a Usenet message. So, no, I hope I don't see that type of throw-away observation wasting space in a newspaper without a word or two of critical analysis to back it up.

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