Blogs can top the presses
Talking Points Memo drove the U.S. attorrneys story, proof that Web writers with input from devoted readers can reshape journalism.
By Terry McDermott
LA Times
March 17, 2007
New York — IN a third-floor Flower District walkup with bare wooden floors, plain white walls and an excitable toy poodle named Simon, six guys dressed mainly in T-shirts and jeans sit all day in front of computer screens at desks arranged around the oblong room's perimeter, pecking away at their keyboards and, bit by bit, at the media establishment.
The world headquarters of TPM Media is pretty much like any small newsroom, anywhere, except for the shirts. And the dog. And the quiet. Most newsrooms are notably noisy places, full of shrill phones and quacking reporters. Here there is mainly quiet, except for the clacking keyboards.
It's 20 or so blocks up town to the heart of the media establishment, the Midtown towers that house the big newspaper, magazine and book publishers. And yet it was here in a neighborhood of bodegas and floral wholesalers that, over the last two months, one of the biggest news stories in the country — the Bush administration's firing of a group of U.S. attorneys — was pieced together by the reporters of the blog Talking Points Memo.
The bloggers used the usual tools of good journalists everywhere — determination, insight, ingenuity — plus a powerful new force that was not available to reporters until blogging came along: the ability to communicate almost instantaneously with readers via the Internet and to deputize those readers as editorial researchers, in effect multiplying the reporting power by an order of magnitude.
(Continued here.)
By Terry McDermott
LA Times
March 17, 2007
New York — IN a third-floor Flower District walkup with bare wooden floors, plain white walls and an excitable toy poodle named Simon, six guys dressed mainly in T-shirts and jeans sit all day in front of computer screens at desks arranged around the oblong room's perimeter, pecking away at their keyboards and, bit by bit, at the media establishment.
The world headquarters of TPM Media is pretty much like any small newsroom, anywhere, except for the shirts. And the dog. And the quiet. Most newsrooms are notably noisy places, full of shrill phones and quacking reporters. Here there is mainly quiet, except for the clacking keyboards.
It's 20 or so blocks up town to the heart of the media establishment, the Midtown towers that house the big newspaper, magazine and book publishers. And yet it was here in a neighborhood of bodegas and floral wholesalers that, over the last two months, one of the biggest news stories in the country — the Bush administration's firing of a group of U.S. attorneys — was pieced together by the reporters of the blog Talking Points Memo.
The bloggers used the usual tools of good journalists everywhere — determination, insight, ingenuity — plus a powerful new force that was not available to reporters until blogging came along: the ability to communicate almost instantaneously with readers via the Internet and to deputize those readers as editorial researchers, in effect multiplying the reporting power by an order of magnitude.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
The interesting question is, do blogs encourage citizen involvement ? Writing a commentary is one thing, but when citizens ban together, messages can be sent … whether politicians can hear us is another question. The din from financial supporters and party leaders is quite loud.
Those who frequent Josh’s Talking Points Memo site will notice a common theme … what does your Representative/Senator say about a particular issue. The LA Times article references the Social Security issue and TPM encouraged Minnesotans to contact Coleman after his word-twisting comment on the subject :
“LEAVE IT TO a goof like Sen. Norm Coleman (R) of Minnesota not only to use the GOP 'privatization' playbook but to describe it on the record.
Explaining how he dealt with criticism that he supported privatization: "I countered it by being very clear that I supported personal accounts and opposed privatization."
Will someone ask Coleman to name any group or individual who supports 'privatization' as he defines it?
I don’t know how many contacted Coleman, but the more the better.
The DM&E is a classic example of how blogs and interest groups eventually got the politicians to pay attention (ok, an election helped a lot) … even if the FRA had allowed the loan, the politicians learned that plenty of citizens were very concerned.
To all the bloggers out there, keep spreading your message.
= = = = = = = = =
And for those that do not frequent TPM, the US Attorney story was actually an offshoot from Josh's dogged pursuit of Duke Cunningham which lead to Jerry Lewis ... and the Lewis investigation may now die with Carol Lam being fired as US Attorney.
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