Blogs and Bloggers

Private Blogs Produced by Professional Journalists

By the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, hundreds of professional journalists began to produce their own blogs, which they use, among other things, to publish the complete transcripts of interviews with sources, invite fact-checking of given stories, and solicit suggestions for future stories. Moreover, many professional journalists use such blogs to further comment on the topics of published or broadcast stories. This latter practice has not been without its problems, however. Indeed, a number of professional journalists have been reprimanded, or even fired, for crossing the line between news and views on their private blogs. For example, Steve Olafson, a longtime journalist at the Houston Chronicle, was fired after he had used his private blog to criticize local politicians he was assigned to cover at the Chronicle.

A screen shot from the popular blog Wonkette, established in 2004, features irreverent political gossip concerning Washington, D.C., movers and shakers. Its first star editor, Ana Marie Cox, went on to become a political reporter for Time magazine, for which she covered John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

Source:http://Wonkette.com, used by permission.

News Media–Hosted Blogs Produced by Professional Journalists

By the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, dozens of mainstream news organizations around the world began to host blogs produced by professional journalists, notably in the form of so-called editorial blogs and editorial board blogs. Such organizations as the BBC, CBS, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times have added editorial blogs to their online sites where senior editors explain editorial decisions; invite questions, comments, and feedback from readers and viewers; and respond to their concerns. Similarly, many newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News, the Sacramento Bee, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Spokesman-Review, and the Wichita Eagle, have added editorial board blogs to their online sites where members of the editorial board, either individually or as a collective, outline their ideas for upcoming editorials, discuss those ideas with interested readers, and respond to their comments on published editorials. While some papers, like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, announce topics being considered for the next day's edition following their editorial board meetings each day, other papers, including the Dallas Morning News, invite reader comments as editorial topics are still being discussed by the editorial board.

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