All the News That's Fit...

All the News That's Fit to Blog: "The purpose of journalism is to inform -- first about basic facts (news gathering) and then about the meaning of those facts (news analysis, commentary, and opinion). Much of the business of news gathering has been commoditized by the Associated Press, Dow Jones, and Reuters... What further distinguishes bloggers is their understanding of the peer communities that they serve. For one thing, bloggers assume that their readers are as smart as they are, if not smarter. What a refreshing notion! When they're not focused on themselves, mainstream journalists spend most of their time sucking up to sources and writing with a keen eye toward source protection. Bloggers spend most of their time engaged in constant communication with their readers. In so doing, they create a network of sources who are always on the lookout for interesting articles, columns, stories, and items. Reynolds, in particular, makes use of this jury-rigged stringer system to alert his readers to articles that would otherwise go unnoticed. "