"Beat the Press" Ignores the Truth

Apparently, Greater Boston's so-called self-professed media watchdog "Beat the Press" needs a dose of their own medicine. Read David for the nuts and bolts of what happened. However, I want to take on three specific quotes from the show.

Not that [bloggers] had great credibility anyway.

Sure there is... it's called reputation. Bloggers that build a reputation will build readers, bloggers that don't will bleed them.

I don't expect them to take money for their opinions... and a lot of money too.

A lot of money? Let's compare that to Big Money in Politics: it's peanuts. And for every blogger who gets "a lot of money" there are thousands who make nothing - yet write just as much. Bloggers don't make a lot of money - stop confusing people. Even bloggers that keep ads generally don't make much for them - including fairly well-trafficked websites like Bluemassgroup.

"That's never going to happen" (bloggers stop writing about the campaign on their website)

Umm... That's exactly what the MyDD blogger, who Beat the Press complains about so strongly, did when he got hired by the campaigns... he not only stopped writing about those campaigns and people, but more or less stopped writing on the website completely.

Lynne has some good points for a course of action. She also writes about a new label spewed against bloggers, we're all egotistical and therefore, no one should read blogs.

So, read all that stuff... especially how "Beat the Press" took a blog that was a blatant joke as truth, without doing a shred of any research (including a mere google). Then, people who are as disgusted as I was should feel compelled to take 30 seconds and email Greater Boston to complain and ask them to make a correction and apology. If they want to have the accountability they claim bloggers don't, then they need to at least make that step. Then they need to ask themselves how they could be so duped: they're not in touch with new journalism and are too insulated to see things clearly.