Democracy and Blogs

Here's an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled "Blogs can help democracy, especially in partisan times":

Editors and producers of the mainstream media have bashed bloggers because there is no system of checks and balances on bloggers, most of whom have no training for journalistic endeavors.

The regular press also doesn’t like the idea of people with laptops holding its feet to the fire and having a say in setting the agenda for what is news.

Most bloggers may not have journalistic training, but they aren’t just random goofballs, either.

Glenn Reynolds, who runs instapundit.com, is a conservative law professor. His site served up more than 8 million page views in September. Duncan Black is a former economics professor whose Atrios blog has more than 100,000 visitors per day.

Markos Moulitsas runs a liberal blog called dailykos.com. Kos, his army nickname, has a law degree. His site gets 8 million visits per month.

In terms of formal education, many bloggers surpass journalists. Besides, freedom of the press is not limited to those with journalistic training; anybody can be a journalist in the U.S.A. — all you need is an idea and an outlet.