Bobbling on blogging

Scripps alumnus from the pre-JOA days at the Rocky Mountain News and online pioneer Robert Niles takes on a smug assertion from Dave Zeeck.

Zeeck, the immediate past president of American Society of Newspaper Editors, said that without newspapers, the lights would go out on blogging. There was something about newspapers, bloggers and fuel rods that sent Niles nuclear.

Zeeck, I guess, was trying to get a bobblehead wave of acknowledgment going among the men of the gray old lady by saying:

News on the Internet – news from real communities, new about real governments and real wars – comes from flesh-and-blood reporters. And they’re dispatched from our newsrooms, not the soulless zero-gravity of the Internet.

Well, yes -- and definitely no.

Robert Niles says the comments of Zeeck and its ilk are just so much poppycock.

His money quote:

Instead of whining about and dismissing it at industry conferences, newspaper leaders ought instead to take a clear look at the blogs and websites which are luring their readers. Yes, there are too many "gasbags" in the media. Newspaper editors ought not join them.

He blog post got a good thread of comments going. Read his and theirs here.

From the coverage, I've read, editors are not quite as out-of-touch as Zeeck's comments seem for the most part. Tim Porter has several interesting posts on the panels, including this one on Six Things to Do

Tags: blogging | newspapers | journalism | media