Reporters and Bloggers

I have been writing most of my professional life. Articles, papers, contracts, Ordinances, technical books, e-books, commentary and Blogs. In the realm of social media, which I truly love, I consider myself a Blogger, not a reporter.

One of the traps that a lot of bloggers fall into when they develop a following is the void between reporting and blogging.  I don't report on anything, I write my opinion about events and things others report on.

I don't think the people who follow my blogging are looking for breaking news, they are interested in my opinion. I see my blogging as a way to get an opinion out there for you to read and agree or disagree with. My sole objective is to get you, the reader, thinking.

If you follow my Blogs on PATCH or my personal Blog Bay Post Internet, you will rarely see breaking news.

 I frequently get "tips" on news worthy stories, but I do not rush out to be first. In fact I usually forward the tip to one of my reporter contacts.

As a Blogger I found I need to be very careful when someone gives me some information. Rarely are things given freely without an ulterior motive. Even reliable sources often have an agenda.  

There was a lot made of the inaccurate reporting of Bill Young's passing by  prominent local Blogger Peter Schorsch. It seemed everybody right up the Poynter Institute folks had to chime in. 

So when a very prominent Blogger gets it wrong, it is big news in the news business.

Bloggers are not very well liked by the rest of the media.

We often don't have proper 'journalistic" credentials, we enjoy a certain freedom of expression that most paid reporters don't have and for the most part, we write about what we want to write about with little or no editorial control.

The journalistic elite blame Bloggers and Social media for the demise of the news business. The deterioration in the quality of writing and declining news revenues. All the time pandering to their big ad buyers, political cronies and their own agendas.

If Bloggers took the time to bash every reporter or news outlet that got it wrong, we wouldn't have any time to write opinions.

Peter Schorsch and I frequently disagree on issues, but the overriding fact is few have done as much for social media at the local and state level as his SaintPetersblog.

The Bill Young issue is unfortunate and I know Peter Schorsch well enough to know how bad he feels about what happened.

e-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net, or send me a Facebook Friend request.