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NANCY CLARK TAKES ON THE BLOGS

August 04, 2005

Nancy Clark is a sportswriter for The Des Moines Register. She is also apparently a bit touchy about this "blog" stuff going around. She writes today about the superiority of paid journalists over bloggers, and unwittingly makes herself an incredibly tempting target. So here goes...

Today I'll be talking with Dan McCarney.
The bloggers won't.

I'll also be posing questions during Iowa State's media day to Bret Meyer, Todd Blythe and Jason Scales.

The bloggers won't.

Monday, I'll be chatting with Kirk Ferentz.

The bloggers won't.

I'll also get in a word at Iowa's media day with Drew Tate.

The bloggers won't.

Tuesday, I'll interview Mark Farley at Northern Iowa's media day.

The bloggers won't.

Today I'll be working with the tax code doing tax returns and tax planning. Nancy Clark won't. If you are interested in the KPMG tax shelter story, who are you going to call - Nancy or me?

Today Random will be practicing corporate law for a living. She has also practiced criminal law for a living. Who has more credibility talking about Pierre Pierce - Nancy or Random? I vote Random, myself.

Wait! Come back! This isn't an exercise in name-dropping.

It's about you, and what you should pay attention to as we enter the thick of the college football media days season.

Of course you're going to hang on every word the stars say. But are you also going to take note of who's taking the notes?

You really should know who's asking the questions. It's important. It's the only way you can discern fact from fiction.

Yes, especially if Jayson Blair is asking the questions.

The State of the News Media Report is an annual review by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, part of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

The conclusion of the 600-page report was that the traditional "journalism of verification," in which reporters check facts, is being infringed upon by a new model of journalism that is "faster, looser and cheaper."

The same Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism that publishes the Columbia Journalism Review - the self-proclaimed guardian of journalistic integrity that went for many months without bothering to inform its readers that leftist polemicist Victor Navasky was actually running the magazine?

In the new "journalism of assertion," as the report calls it, information is offered with little time and little attempt to independently verify its voracity.

Well, I can attest to the "voracity" of voracious blog readers. But what about their veracity?

In other words, bloggers and some radio and cable talk show hosts make up stories and spread rumors. Too often, consumers don't know the difference between these lies and mainstream news reports.

Because of this shift, there is no longer widespread agreement on basic facts. We don't all know the same thing.

Some Iowans "knew," for example, that Tate, the Iowa quarterback, had a broken leg before last season's Capital One bowl, while others knew he was healthy.

Some reporters "knew" that George Bush had defied orders to get a medical examination. Those dumb bloggers ruined that story, and poor Dan Rather is retiring now.

The report on the threat to traditional journalism focused on political reporting - remember the allegations by the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" that, after weeks of reporting, were found to be unsubstantiated?

Like the assertion that John Kerry didn't really Christmas in Cambodia supplying arms to the Khmer Rouge? Oh, wait, that assertion by the Swift Boat Vets was true. Did you know that?

But I think "journalism of assertion" is just as pervasive in sports. Lies and rumors about coaches and players in Iowa City - accepted as fact until proven otherwise by the mainstream media - have sadly become routine. Ask Steve Alford. Ask Jennie Lillis.

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.

Yes, be sure it's all verified by Dan Rather, Jayson Blair and Victor Navasky. Oh, and Nancy Clark. Ignore the thousands of blogs out there ready to blast and correct the errors of other bloggers.

If your still not convinced that the paid journalists are entirely reliable, go visit "regrettheerror.com." You'll feel a lot better about what you read in the paper.

UPDATE: State 29 is less polite to Nancy.

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