Blogs, rumors and the "working press"

In case you haven't noticed, the internet is rapidly changing how the news media does it's job. News consumers are no longer content to wait for the morning paper to find out how their team did last night. They want the box score, quotes and analysis almost before the game has ended. This is making it tough on all flavors of media, but most dramatically on the print folks.

Sometimes they lash out.

Nancy has one correct point: she has to verify everything she is going to print as fact. This means talking to the parties involved directly, which is the central tenant of good journalism.

Where she wanders astray is in her portrayal of those who post on message boards or write blogs like this one.

The money quote:

"Read the blogs if you want. Read the message boards. But do it for entertainment, not information. Don't accept anything you read on them as truth unless it has been independently verified.

Usual scenario: A loser tries to make himself seem important by posting information that makes him appear to be an insider, "in the know."

Worse case scenario: Gambling interests, bookies, the mob pass off inaccurate information about a player or team as truth to try to influence wagering or the outcome of a contest. They're counting on readers and viewers to be gullible.

Don't be."

While a few may be losers living in their mother's basements, most are not. We have jobs, families, lives. We just happen to be passionate enough about something to write about it. It's a virtual barroom argument.

But what is getting stuck in the craw of Nancy and the "working press" is that despite the vast amounts of smoke generated online, there is a significant amount of fire. Enough fire that sportswriters now cruise the message boards looking for the next one. It's part of their beat now.

In fact, most of the major local sports stories have been first reported, unverified, online: Coach Peterson's child porn, Eustachy's drinking, Jon Beutjer's roommate problems, Pierre Pierce's dating struggles, etc. Some of these floated around in cyberspace for days before the "working press" either noticed, or were able to get anything on the record. Flat out, they are getting beat, especially the Register.

A sports page that was once one of the nation's best is now second banana to papers like the Ames Tribune. They seldom send a staff photographer to away games for either Iowa or ISU, content to work with whatever AP sends them. Their drop in circulation month to month and year to year is way above the industry average, and no improvement is in sight.

So those who do mediocre work, and who are barely able to justify their job at an operation that focuses not on the news, but on maintaining a 20% profit margin, get the most belligerent at those who do better work for free.

Peterclone