Salon (use the day pass) weighs in on the post-Dan Rather, post-Eason Jordan world of US blogs and asks if the self-proclaimed "citizen journalists" have become ideological bullies.
Writer Eric Boehlert's cue was a Republican memo that said the party could make political gains from the controversy over Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died last month. Rightwing blogs raised questions over its authenticity that became allegations of Democrat dirty tricks; but then an aide to a Republican senator came forward to admit he had written it. In the interim, the blog-driven dirty trick story gained currency. Boehlert says he has not read self-reflection or apologies.
The blogosphere is no utopia – and the rightwingers will surely disagree with the piece - but Boehlert makes a timely critique of the growing self-importance of "citizen journalists" who are more activist than analyst (something true on both the left and the right). "The sooner the mainstream press understands that, and stops anxiously amplifying bloggers' conspiracy of the week, the better off it will be," he writes.
The Des Moines Register adds a further tale along these lines: how blogs - via theories of satanic CIA agents - conflated suspect White House correspondent Jeff Gannon with a paperboy who went missing in 1982. "Johnny Gosch may finally have been found, thanks to Rush Limbaugh," it opens.
