I didn't think what I said during the Dartmouth blog panel was hard to parse, but the Manchester Union-Leader managed to completely screw it up.
First, here's the Dartmouth newspaper's report, which is accurate:
Brendan Nyhan, who started the non-partisan blog Spinsanity, disagreed that much had changed.
"There is really a paradox to blogging," Nyhan said. "On one hand it's opened up, but on the other hand the group of people who are being read the most look a lot like the old [journalists]. The group is dominated by ex-journalists and people in information age industries."
...Nyhan said that, despite predictions that blogging would lessen partisanship and hold politicians and mainstream media accountable for what they say, the new blogs have increased partisanship and most fact-checking that goes on in blogs is ideologically slanted.
"Who's going to spend the time to update every day? The people who have a strong desire to do so because they really care," Nyhan said, saying earlier that he "could have made more money working for Starbucks."
"The people who blog are pretty extreme. The political blog looks like a food fight on TV," he added.
[Roger L.] Simon said that he believed fact-checking on blogs to be more extensive than newspapers. He used the example of an article he wrote for The Los Angeles Times about a Siberian Film Festival, where the fact-checker simply asked him if the story was accurate and accepted Simon's response. According to Simon, every blog reader is a fact-checker because readers who see errors can easily post responses so Simon could make corrections.
Most of the panelist did not see the blogs and the mainstream media as two forces locked in combat with each other. Many believed that reporting was still necessary and that blogging was meant to complement, rather than compete with, other sources of news.
"No one is going to say, 'I don't want to read The New York Times,'" Nyhan said. "A lot of media that came along hasn't killed other media. Newspapers and radios are still around."
But the Union Leader correspondent described me as being enthusiastic about blog fact-checking and characterized Simon as agreeing with me -- the exact opposite of what we actually said:
Most of the panelist[s] agreed, however, that because of the specialized nature of blogs, the medium doesn't threaten to replace newspapers or radio anytime soon. In terms of accuracy, though, some blogs may be able to provide a higher level of reliability than traditional media outlets, simply because of the diverse and knowledgeable audience that can point out errors with the click of a mouse, contended Brendan Nyhan, co-founder of the fact-checking political blog Spinsanity.
The commentary found on blogs elevates content to a level above the "he said, she said" political reporting in newspapers, Nyhan said.
"No newspaper or magazine can afford the level of fact-checking that you get with a blog that has thousands of readers," Simon agreed.
Just to clarify the point, I said that blogs have the potential to be better fact-checkers than newspapers, which rely far too heavily on "he said," "she said" reporting. (We made this argument in the conclusion of All the President's Spin.) However, I said that they have largely failed to fulfill that potential. Most of the alleged "fact-checking" of politicians and pundits on blogs consists of disguised ideological attacks. It's true, as Simon pointed out, that blogs are better at correcting their own factual errors than newspapers, but their fact-checking of others is generally overhyped.
"No one is going to say, 'I don't want to read The New York Times,'"
Don't be so sure. At a minimum, they may learn to say "I trust McClatchy more on this subject."
Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | April 21, 2007 at 11:50 AM
It's sad but true that when you see the media report a story about which you have personal knowledge, the inaccuracies and oversimplifications are glaring. Now consider the 99.99% of the stories they report about which we do not have personal knowledge. Is there any reason to believe those are more accurate?
Posted by: Rob | April 21, 2007 at 01:57 PM