Friday, June 16, 2006

Jim Lehrer's Blog Sensibilities

He may be in his 70's, and part of nasty MSM (even if he *is* PBS), but Jim Lehrer gets blogging!....in an interview with Sean McCarthy of the Boston Herald:
The proliferation of news blogs doesn’t bother or worry Lehrer. “The more people are talking about the news and arguing and having debates, I think it’s fabulous,” he said. “The reporting of the news will still be done by people like you and me.”


That's the thing...we'er talking out here. If we want to be journalists, we can be, but most of the time we're having conversation. It's different than journalism in the way in which we interact with one another and the world. And the fact that so many people are simply talking about the news, politics, etc. is far better than a populace that isn't engaged at all.

Although I have to say that the final sentiment *is* a bit haughty, and makes me want to ask Lehrer what he believes would make a person a reporter and if he sees some bloggers as reporters/journalists.

It's a connundrum that we're going to be playing around with for quite some time. Lots of folks have invested big bucks in journo school degrees and aren't about to concede much turf (or that's my viewpoint.) And do we really even want the precious turf?? I find it odd how many in the profession of journalism can say that journo school really doesn't count--but then why are places like Columbia Jouno still important? Or is journo school just another means of making connections and getting oneself placed higher on the newsroom foodchain?

I'm very curious...

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