Pods & Blogs II

In the end, Radio Five Live's Pods & Blogs show last week didn't include my interview about the Blogging4Business seminar (see earlier post). Fair puppies, I guess. However, one thing that struck me, both at B4B and listening to a stream of Pods & Blogs last night, was how 'the blogosphere' seems to operate like a giant tips file for real journalists to follow up, but one that is also public at the same time, with all the dangers that implies. Consider a report on P&B from one Mark Graber, the man behind a blog called Balkinization. Graber has posted a tale of a profesor refused entry to an American Airlines flight, allegedly because he ended up on a terrorist watch list for criticizing Bush policies on the Iraq War. Whether the story is true or not, Graber fails to apply the principles of good journalism (check facts, ask for a response from the other side, etc) before recounting the tale. For many other bloggers, it also seems to be a case of post first, ask questions (invite comments) later.
The 'amateur journalist' aspect of the blogging game was really brought home to me by a guy from Microsoft who was a panellist at B4B. This man, who blogs under the name Office Rocker!, explained how many tech bloggers had been engaged in furious debate over the rights and wrongs of being given laptops by Microsoft to try out a new operating system. Real journalists deal with this kind of thing all the time. The purity and naivety of those bloggers is both quaint and ridiculous.