Citizen Journalism: The Blogosphere at its Best

Mainstream media is constantly harping that bloggers are not real journalists:

“They’re not real journalists, they don’t check sources, they don’t play by the rules of journalism”.

Jealousy will get them nowhere. I have a theory that what’s really going on here is good old fashioned professional scorn, not unlike Doctors against Midwives and Lawyers against Paralegals.

Neither do they like it when bloggers catch them with their pants down:

“… the scandal involving the news service, Reuters, is the latest evidence that blogs make a difference. Reuters was using war photos – some admittedly re-touched to add more drama – from a Lebanese freelancer. If this hadn’t been raised – just like the blogosphere brought down CBS’s Dan Rather who ran a phony story – does anyone really think that action would have been taken?”

So here’s a real shocker for all you bonafied ‘journalists’ out there — bloggers don’t need to play by the same rules because we are citizen journalists.

The blogosphere is a conversation about the news. Or sometimes we ARE the news. We don’t report it. We just react.

Journalists have long touted themselves as democracy’s watchdog. But now the journalists have someone to keep them in line, and they don’t like it.

So carry on reporting but remember — there’s a new sheriff in town… and we’re watching.

Peace y’all.