Content Matters

Eric Alterman has an extensive piece in this week's New Yorker entitled Out of Print: the death and life of the American newspaper.

Much of the material has been covered on this blog and elsewhere, but Alterman focuses on newspapers as the fount of trustworthiness. Most traditional media differentiate their offerings by focusing on the editorial process and vetting that takes place, as compared to a blog where the author and editor are typically one and the same. The other key attribute for most newspapers is a claim of unbiased approach, while bloggers frequently take a position.

To Alterman, this truism was called into question  in 2005 as Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post began to aggressively question the reporting of New York Times' writer Judy Miller. The subsequent testimony in the Scooter Libby trial unveiled details of leaks provided to Miller and an overall cloud over her shaky reporting of the facts leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As Alterman points out, despite the fact that Huffington Post had little investigative or editorial resources, they were able to leverage the power of the community to identify issues in Miller's reporting that had gone unnoticed by the editorial desk.

The article talks about a future where online and offline converge, and raises questions of what we, as a society may lose, as newspapers pare back on their journalistic efforts.  The blogosphere is effective at analyzing and providing feedback but are reliant upon the traditional sources for general reporting. No matter how smart and creative, a blogger working from their home will be no substitute for reporters in war zones, inside political campaigns and otherwise in the trenches.

UPDATE: Now that the Wire has run its course, those wishing to get a sense of what it's like inside a newspaper might want to read this post written by Chicago Sun-Times veteran reporter Howard Wolinsky upon his leaving the paper.