The Bloggers Don’t Have A Board Of Directors

It has been in the news recently and quite an argument has ensued because of it. What is a journalist? Is a blogger a journalist? Do you have to work for a paper that has to have a board of directors who are invested in other areas? Do you have to have an executive editor who can be swayed by the opinion of those well to do in the community? For instance in the city where I live there are a few families who make the decisions for the whole community. Old money it is called but everyone knows who he or she is. They can kill a report in the paper about who and what they want with a phone call; sometimes it doesn’t even take that. After a while it is known what to print and what not to print.
Old money can even keep you out of jail and therefore out of the paper. A blogger has the ability to not be threatened by these forces since it is doubtful old money reads a blog. Unless someone in the know tells them what is out there they will have no idea. For instance a source I know in the local police department has told me that there are warrants to be served on family members in the area, family members of old money and still they sit there un-served. Even though the FBI has investigated the local police department the warrants were obviously not found. I guess it is easy to hide something from the FBI if you try hard enough. Maybe the warrants weren’t even there when the FBI investigated.
So a blogger who writes about what he discovers on the web or through sources are not a journalist? Then why are news agencies reporting on what bloggers are discovering? You would be amazed what you find out about someone on the Internet in just a few minutes if you know where to look. In another time bloggers would have been called pinkos or reds, today they are dismissed until it becomes apparent that they have the story right. Anyone care to guess how many stories have seen the light of day since bloggers have started seriously investigating? Look to the future and you’ll see politicians courting the bloggers with interviews and being careful what they say because someone is always listening, and they know how to self-publish.

- Chris Mansel