All Blog Posts from Public Eye

Sam Freedman’s “Outside Voices” column on this site a few weeks ago, which discussed the advent of "citizen journalism," caused quite the blogospherical stir. In a Q&A with Poynter’s Chip Scanlan, Freedman reacts to the reaction.

Scanlan: You're tough on bloggers, FOX News and citizen journalists. As a former New York Times reporter and tenured professor at Columbia Journalism School, what separates you from charges that you're an elitist scold?

Freedman: I don't mind being called an elitist if being an elitist means being the best, not being snooty and effete. When I hear people complain about the elite, I always ask them if they'd like to apply their principle to sports. Let's have an NFL season with only mediocre players, because all those elitists like Tom Brady and Donovan McNabb are ruining the game. Somehow people don't mind the elite all of a sudden. I don't think an amateur is as qualified as a professional in journalism. There are qualified journalists and scholars whose blogs I do read -- Juan Cole on the Middle East, Andrew Sullivan on social and political issues, Gregg Easterbrook on football. But in their cases, the blog is simply an alternative delivery system. These people write out of a body of research, if not for every posting, then certainly over the course of a career. But to just sit down and write your opinions or harvest the day's gossip -- that's not journalism, even if it is momentarily chic. As for FOX, it's a fascinating political movement, but it's not a news organization in any way I recognize. If that's scolding, then I'm guilty as charged.

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The blogosphere is growing, quite literally, by the second. And so too are the number of programs online created to search blogs. Navigating the navigators of the blogosphere has become a maze in itself. That’s why we appreciated Cyberjournalist editor Jonathan Dube’s recent guide at Poynter Online to the best of the blog search engines. Despite some users' recent criticism of it, Dube is a fan of Google’s new blog search engine as well as the old reliable, Technorati, but he highlights some of the other frontrunners, noting where they shine and where they fall short. It's definitely worth a look.

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