” … and you can trust me, because I never lie and I’m always right.” — George LeRoy Tirebiter.
Blogs are not trusted as a news source. Wow. You could have knocked me over with a feather (a lead-filled feather) after reading that pearl of wisdom from columnist Marie Coco. Ms. Coco, whose name I could childishly ridicule but will not, writes:
“Blogs are, in fact, the least trusted news source, according to data compiled by Consumer Reports and published in the latest study of the news media conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Only 12 percent of those surveyed about trust in various media outlets said they believe what they read in blogs all or most of the time. That’s compared with 56 percent who said they could believe newspapers and television news.”
That is kind of a broad-brush analysis don’t you think Ms. Coco? I mean, there are blogs that I would believe all of the time, although certainly few. But there also are newspapers and television news outlets I certainly would not believe all of the time. I’m not naming any specific media outlets such as The Washington Times and Fox News but let’s just say if the shoe fits …
Coco (I love saying that name) seems to be afflicted with blogophobia, a condition I certainly can understand given the media’s continued assertions that blogs are the biggest thing since Scotch whisky. Having been a member of the media I can honestly say that the industry is like the person who believes that if taking a pill will cure you, then taking a whole bunch of pills will cure you even better. The news biz is eaten up with what state troopers like to call “overcorrection,” as when a person overcorrects their steering error and incorrectly smashes into a tree.
It is also true what Coco says that “few pajama-clad bloggers were seen wading through hip-deep water in New Orleans to cover the perils wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the way that mainstream reporters and camera crews did.”
But here is the thing about the so-called “blogosphere:” It’s big enough for both of us Ms. Coco. Blogs can be legitimate news sources. They can be opinion forums. They can be rants. They can be “Dear Diary.” They can be smut. They can be all of that wrapped into one. I understand if Coco is a little resentful about bloggers, especially when those in the news media get pounded every day by every nutcase blowhard. All I ask is that blogs be accepted for whatever they are and then we will get on with whatever it was we were doing before she wrote this column. The trouble is, I forgot what I was doing so I suppose I shall do something else.
(Blogmeister’s note: For those of you who don’t catch the reference, George Tirebiter was a character from Firesign Theater’s classic album “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers.” Tirebiter was named for a shaggy dog that used to hang around the University of Southern California in the 1940s and became a mascot of sorts. So now you know.)