By way of WNY Media Network, Adam L. Penenberg has a very thorough story on bloggers who turn into journalists and journalists who blog.
Penenberg raises two a very good questions: 1) Can you be both a blogger and a journalist? And, 2) should journalists really should be objective and honest?
For the first, I’d say it is not easy. When push comes to shove, you need to earn a living. If that is being a journlist, then accept any limitations your employer gives for blogging. If you can get paid to blog, great. But, few likely can make a living at it.
For the second, I’m not sure what my opinion is. But, according to the article, Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds has his:
“I think that the openness of opinions helps, rather than hurts, since it allows you to make adjustment for known bias, rather than guessing at unknown bias.”
As a journalist by education and early career, reporters should definitely be honest. That goes without question. There should also be an attempt at objectivity — at least being open to all sides of the story, whether you personally agree or not.
While media outlets can have certain slants or biases, I don’t want a reporter’s own bias to make up my mind for me by only reporting a portion of the story or facts. If I have to verify every fact in every story by every media outlet to learn the truth, then it’s not worth the effort.
On one hand, I don’t mind an openly biased reporter — only as long as the bias is clearly stated somehow. However, the purist journalist in me still firmly believes that the media serves an important role: Report the facts, not try to persuade. Leave that for the opinion pages.
Guess I’ll have to ponder this some more.
– Mike
Technorati tags: Journalism, Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, Blogging
