Helen Thomas Bah-Humbugs Bloggers
(CBS)
More important than labeling, in the author’s mind, was the thought that these ‘genuine-seeming journalists’ should be afforded the legal protections granted to accredited media members.
Well, not that it should come as too much of a surprise, but old school White House scribe Helen Thomas isn’t drinking that “everybody’s a journalist!” kool-aid.
Check out the Huffington Post Q&A with Thomas:
Do you think technology is changing [journalism]? That a good reporter will always find a venue because there are so many media outlets now?
No, but I do think it is kind of sad when everybody who owns a laptop thinks they're a journalist and doesn't understand the ethics. We do have to have some sense of what's right and wrong in this job. Of how far we can go. We don't make accusations without absolute proof. We're not prosecutors. We don't assume.
So if there's this amateur league of journalists out there, trying to do what you do...
It's dangerous.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
But, seriously, how many bloggers does Helen Thomas know to be so certain that all of us want to be journalists, and that all of us are acting without a sense of right/wrong--basically with no ethical standard? How does she know this? From a smattering of political blogs and comments at WaPo? He accusations about bloggers are just plain off-base. The blogosphere''s too big a place for such broad generalizations.
Read her "Watchdogs of Democracy." In it, she bashes Bush and other Republicans, of course, but she also writes about Democrats, JFK and Bill Clinton in particular, like a teenage girl with a huge crush. She brags about being invited to their parties and getting giddy in their company. Yuck!!!
Some ethics.