Blogs Once Again Investigate the Truth
This piece in Wednesday’s Christian Science Monitor uses a blogger’s challenge of 60 Minutes II source material to explore blogs as media watchdogs and finders of truth.
“Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee behind the Instapundit blog, says the online community acts as its own ombudsman to sift fact from allegation.
‘The check on blogs is other blogs,’ he says. ‘Because blogs operate in a reputation-based environment, nobody minds a bias. But they expect you to be honest about your facts.’”
. . .
“‘Since time immemorial people have complained that journalists got stories wrong about things they knew about,’ says Virginia Postrel, a New York Times columnist with a blog at dynamist.com. ‘What’s happened with the blogs, and the reason they have the power to actually change media stories is that it’s not just Joe complaining to Pete that this story looks fishy to him. It’s Joe posting it for all the world to see.’”
