Oxymoron

The best blogging newspapers? Selected by journalism students. And why should we give a hoot? Even if they are anointed by Jay Rosen, who appreciates what is happening better than most journalists, I have to wonder what entitles them to advise bloggers on what makes a newspaper good at blogging.

I looked at the Chronicle's website, already being familiar with some of the others. One thing to like is no registration. Having lots of bloggers on staff is a good way to make reporters understand blogging. The editors' blogg with a headline "No feeding frenzy, Cheney story fair game for media," didn't impress me. This guy may not have been obnoxious about it, but did he not see those White House gaggles? His response was just wagon-circling. Some of the others were pretty good, but one gets the impression that they are pared down versions of their other work or a side bar to their "real" jobs.

Just because a journalist posts to a blog, doesn't make him a blogger, but I guess you have to start somewhere. The one I liked the best was MeMo by Kyrie O'Connor. The others might be more interesting if they made them into a group blog like the Corner.

I guess I'm being too judgmental here, but if so, it's due to experience with the MSM. Nobody anointed these people to instruct the rest of us. If he wants to rank newspapers doing blogging, why not poll bloggers rather than journalism students. Reporters need more humility, not less. Why not teach them that respect has to be earned from the readers/audience, not conferred by a diploma?