Left In Lowell

Lowell Blogapalooza!

8 Responses to “Lowell Blogapalooza!”

1. JC Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 10:14 am

   Good show this AM. Nice seeing all the faces behind the posts! Everyone contributed and, together, you all made a fine impression for the local blogging community.

   One of the questions raised this morning was: Are bloggers also journalists?

   If you adopt this definition: a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people, then some bloggers are, indeed, journalist.

   So, are all bloggers journalists? Absolutely not! When they make thoughtful posts which reflect professional standards of fairness and integrity - they are! When they rant and rave…they are surely not. The great thing about blogging is that a site like LiL can, and does, do both - mixing partisan rants with well considered posts concerning ethical standards for our elected official. Of course, bloggers don’t have to be journalists. The onus is on the reader. The informed blog reader certainly should know how to glean the BS from the journalism. Of course, there is a danger that the ill-informed and the uninformed will believe just about anything they see in print, and those folks are out there just waiting in line - like sheep ready to be shorn - by just about anyone. The old caveat still applies: “Let the reader beware!”

   For me, it makes little difference what the bloggers consider themselves to be: pundit, essayist, journalist, provocateur, partisan political water-carrier, aspiring literary genius. If you write a post that resonates with me, I am happy to have a forum to add my own two-cents worth.

   Another question asked by the host was; do bloggers have the authority to ask questions or make comments (presumably of public officials, etc.)? (What he did not say, but what was implied was: “Who the hell do these bloggers think they are?”) To me, this is the wrong question. Tom Brokaw, Walter Cronkite, Brian Williams et al, none of these people had the “authority” to seek out answers to the question of their day. What they did have was legitimacy, and that legitimacy was earned over time by the quality of their reporting and the ethical standards they employed.

   There is little question that we are in the midst of a sea change with regard to where we get our news and information. Local, regional, and national blogs are becoming a very important source for all of us, while the old models of TV news networks and newspapers are waning in their influence. We can see that blogs and bloggers will become increasingly important as time goes on. Even today, we can read the responses of local pols responding to blogger’s questions and many of them are making comments in certain local blogs they feel comfortable with. This has now become both their forum of choice, and their forum of necessity. This is where these pols will have to go in order to reach their constituents and the voters.

   Whatever your take on blogs and blogging, it’s here to stay. Sitting as a host on a panel saying you don’t like it, or don’t understand it, or think certain questions are impertinent, or are they journalists, or do they have authority etc. - betrays a failure to appreciate and accept a fundamental reality of our modern world.

   Look out, George! That new-fangled steam locomotive is about to run over your shiny one-horse carriage!

2. Mimi Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 2:30 pm

   It was fun. I wish the millcity guys had been there also. Maybe next time.

3. Michael S. Ready Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 2:49 pm

   Great observational post JC!

   Concerning the hosts questioning whether bloggers “have the authority to ask questions or make comments” of public officials, although I haven’t seen this mornings show, I have, in past viewings, observed with much frustration Anthes and/or McDonough grind away with that very same question. Sometimes they’ll target bloggers, sometimes blog commenters and often citizen acvists. They repeatedly espouse an ‘elect-em and forget-em’ doctrine whereby public officials, once elected, should never be publicly questioned, addressed or criticized.

   Why so puzzled are these hosts when they, in fact, do through the medium of television the very same thing that they repeatedly criticize bloggers, their responding commenters and activists for?

   I might suggest that Mr. McDonough purchase an obviously absent article of furniture for his home television studio - a mirror!

4. Say Whaaaat? Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 3:48 pm

   Anthes and McDonough don’t like bloggers because they’ve become more relavant than them. Follow your own advice and go away guys. Vote every two years and be happy with it. No matter how many TV cameras you put in your bedroom, you no longer matter.

5. Jack Mitchell Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

   Bloggers are regularly issued press credentials at political events.

   Staffers are weary of bloggers, as they can be a fickle bunch. But, love ‘em or hate ‘em, they ain’t going nowheres.

6. Lynne Says:
   July 14th, 2010 at 12:39 pm

   I think bloggers have the same right to question public officials’ actions and policies as any citizen of the United States. As does the press. No more, no less.

7. John McDonough Says:
   July 14th, 2010 at 2:51 pm

   Mimi,
   Thanks for your participation, the show went very well, hoping we can do this again in September.
   Thanks again
   John McDonough

8. Michael S. Ready Says:
   July 14th, 2010 at 3:00 pm

   I see bloggers as a modern day extension of the press. Obviously technology inspired but equally relevant. All newspapers and many television news sources regularly exercise editorial license. Bloggers just “cut to the chase”. I like that!

   Additionally, the advent of the blog has provided a most effective tool to wrest our local level democracies from the chokehold of the crony element and their surreptitious, self-serving activities. Like a klieg light cast on a dark alley, it has sent the nefariously affected and ethically challenged running for cover. Not to mention that it inspires and facilitates good old-fashioned, unconstrained debate.

   All very beneficial and much needed here in Lowell.
   Let’s raise a glass to our local bloggers!

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