Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is Blogging Journalism?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-yes-it-definitely-might-be-sometimes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of the judge's refusal to extend journalist protections to Think Secret in its case against Apple, the Net is abuzz with commentaries coming to its defense. MacInTouch points to three of them, from CNET's Declan McCullagh, MP3 Newswire's Richard Menta and grassroots journalism pundit Dan Gillmor. All agree that Apple went too far with its case and question the court's decision that Web journalists don't count."

4 of 556 comments (clear)

  1. Was Apple Right? by admsteiner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    See Professor Susan Crawford's piece on this on her blog where she argues the outcome (if not the reasoning) of the Judge's ruling was correct... http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/ 3/6/404732.html

  2. Re:Definately by gimpynerd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It seems to me that while most people don't research their blogs there are some that do.

    The same is true for journalists...most are rather crappy but the precious few that do their job well are those who define their job field.

    In this way bloggers are in fact journalists, albeit unpaid, just some are better than others.

  3. Blog = Journal by Anonymous+Custard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A blog is an online journal. A journalist is "one who keeps/writes a journal". So how is a TV Anchor more of a "journalist" than a blogger?

    The spirit of the law is to let the truth get out without compromising the truth-teller's safety / privacy. I think using it to provide insider info that may break NDA's about upcoming products is unfortunate, but we must defend it or else real whistleblowers, such as someone ratting out a pharmaceutical cover-up, will be afraid to tell their story, and the public will get hurt.

    I don't agree with the KKK, for an extreme example, but I do agree with their right to speak their minds; and the same goes for thinksecret.com: I think it's sneaky to sell apple's private product info (paid informants, or just ads on the site) and then protect the transaction under the cover of journalism, but to protect other bloggers conveying more vital issues, we must also protect thinksecret.

    Similar points raised in http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=141361&cid=118 47784

    --
    $8.95/mo web hosting
  4. Re:Qualitative measures? by LurkerXXX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, lots and lots and lots of stuff in the New York Times is not important to me. Most of it isn't. I don't care what's new in the Arts world. I don't read the Business section, etc, etc. But I bet the reports who write the articles for those bits did their research and make sure that what they are publishing is correct as far as they can tell from their research. That's what makes it journalism. The professionalism. Not whether I find that bit important or not.