Thursday, February 09, 2006
BLOGGER NOT MAJOR NEWSPAPER
LA Times media writer James Rainey disses pro-military photoblogger Michael Yon:
Although the profusion of links gives an indication of Yon’s growing popularity, the blogger has yet to draw an audience as large as many traditional news outlets, which measure their traffic in millions. His blog has not hit the threshold of 360,000 distinct monthly users to be tracked by Nielsen/NetRatings.
He also doesn’t own a printing press, employ hundreds of journalists, or truck thousands of copies of the Times to newsstands every morning. He’s a blogger, for Christ’s sake. More from Rainey:
In the blogosphere, opinions fly with abandon. Unconventional characters thrive who would make the mainstream media blanch.
Take a look around your office, Rainey. You might notice some unconventional characters here and there. Try not to blanch!
What big newspaper or television network, after all, would have taken a chance on a self-taught war correspondent who once killed a man in a barroom fight ...
I’d hire him. Hell, I’d cut back security at the same time. It’s a win/win.
... and whose last venture had him pursuing an American cannibal around the globe?
Sounds like a good story. Being a media writer himself, you’d think Rainey would have more of an interest in cannibalism.
Would the mainstream media have kept him on the job after the day he grabbed a soldier’s rifle (during an alley fight in Mosul) and fired off several rounds at the enemy?
Well, probably not. But what can you expect from, ahem, conventional types?
(Via J.F. Beck)