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Written by JD Johannes
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 |
This is a first for me, the 'hear-say' quote. Actually the 'hear-say' quote is common, it is just the first time I have been part of it in a major publication.
In today's Wall Street Journal , Paul Mulshine quotes Glenn Reynolds quoting me.
Here's the graph:
"Now we're hearing the same thing about the blogosphere. 'When enough bloggers take the leap, and start reporting on the statehouse, city council, courts, etc. firsthand, full-time, then the Big Media will take notice and the avalanche will begin,' Mr. Reynolds quotes another blogger as saying. If this avalanche ever occurs, a lot of bloggers will be found gasping for breath under piles of pure ennui. There is nothing more tedious than a public meeting."
The preceding and succeeding paragraphs take a few jabs at the amatuer pundits of the blogosphere which are to expected.
The whole column is essentially a rewrite of the hundreds that came before and would not be worth noting except the hear-say quote is from a blogger who actually goes out and, in Mulshine's own words:
"...is performing a valuable task for the reader -- one that no sane man would perform for free. He is assembling what in the business world is termed the 'executive summary.' Anyone can duplicate a long and tedious report. And anyone can highlight one passage from that report and either praise or denounce it. But it takes both talent and willpower to analyze the report in its entirety and put it in a context comprehensible to the casual reader."
Supposedly that 'talent and willpower' is found wanting in bloggers. Like I said, the whole op-ed is nothing new.
Except in that the quoted but un-named blogger used to reinforce his points is none other than me--JD Johannes.
Most recently I produced, shot and edited video reports for TIME Magazine's website and my video was aired on WCBS-TV New York, KWTV-TV Oklahoma City and KOTV-TV Tulsa.
I've made TV shows, dozens of customized "sweeps pieces" for local TV and produced five documentaries.
The subject of the quote from Glenn's book, Army of Davids , was about how someone who actually understood the law and legislative process would make a better State House reporter than a recent college graduate with a journalism degree. In other words, an expert in law and legislation should be covering the State House. I even explained to Glenn how the business model would work--old fashioned syndication.
I do not know why Mr. Mulshine did not give my name. If he had, it would undercut many of his statements. A news man of his esteem would have surely googled me and found that I was doing exactly what he says bloggers are not doing and nearly beating a major Hollywood director and billionaire .
(Or perhaps he did google me and for some reason thought I was not the type to read the Wall Street Journal.)
The hear-say quote, and this particular usage by Mr. Mulshine, is one of the reasons why blogs have succeeded--the core news consumer does not like hear-say quotes and does not want bland executive summaries for the "casual reader." The core news consumer wants hard news without bias and expert opinion.
Mr. Mulshine's use of a misleading hear-say quote explains well the demise of his beloved newspaper.
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