The Blogging Revolution

http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi

With the number of bloggers, both reporters and everyday people, growing exponentially, the face of journalism cannot help but transform. This new medium of communication turns everyone into a journalist. Your own grandma can now observer the world, write about it, and have a loyal following.
But how to stand out in such a monumental crowd? One possible solution: be big and outrageous enough to send shock waves through cyberspace. Why did the kid in second grade eat a worm? It got everyone’s attention. All eyes were on him. In blogs, many writers are doing the same thing. Make outrageous comments and hopefully have the brains to back them up.
Ann Coulter, a Universal Press columnist notoriously known for her biting jabs at liberals and bold, often politically incorrect statements, has fine-tuned this technique. Coulter’s blog weekly presents the news with enough wit and sarcasm to prevent the mid-story skim.
In her most recent post, “The Stripper has No Clothes,” Coulter examines Sgt. Mark Gottlieb’s questionable investigation and The New York Times’ extensive use of his report in its story, “Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers.”
While journalists might report the fallacy from a neutral standpoint, Coulter can skew the story from any angle and unabashedly does so. Instead of stating that the accuser had lied, Coulter wrote, “The accuser made up so many stories about the incident that the Times was forced to offer her Jayson Blair's old position.” She discusses serious events with a light tone.
Yet “The Stripper” exposes another role of blogs in society. Journalists might be watchdogs of the government, but bloggers now watchdog journalists. Sources that feel wronged can post their frustrations to set the story straight and other journalists can discus different paper’s mistakes.
Coulter thoroughly points out errors in the Times’ article. “In repeatedly citing Gottlieb's after-the-fact memo as if it were the Rosetta stone of the case, the Times also neglected to mention Gottlieb's dark history with Duke students,” said Coulter.
While Coulter may not follow rules for objective reporting, she writes a column, thus has leeway to voice her opinion. Yet, blogs get tricky when hard news reporters write blogs or a random person tells the news.
There are no rules of engagement, no code of ethics, no fact checkers. Blogs satisfy entertainment needs and even keep journalists on their toes, but giving anyone the authority to write news gets dangerous. We can only hope people follow the honor code and stick to the truth. However, the sense of freedom and anonymity the Internet provides makes blogs an ethically questionable medium for telling the news.