By Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R.
Bloggers talk about things they know nothing about, mistaking opinion for fact. Oh wait . . . the know-nothing comments came from print journalism veteran Peggy Noonan, and they were about Web journalism.
Noonan and Arianna Huffington sparred on MSNBC about new media. Huffington pointed out that new Web outfits like her own, and regional ones like Voice of San Diego and MinnPost are performing a lot of good journalism.
Voice of San Diego came off looking pretty good in the exchange, and can be pardoned for posting a videolink to Noonan’s comeuppance.
Click image to view videoclip. The fun begins around 4:17.
HUFFINGTON: If you go around and look at the Voice of San Diego, fantastic local investigative work, and MinnPost, there are many sites all around the country that are doing great local work.
NOONAN: … Great deep investigating . . . I know they’re doing bright commentary. Any idiot can do that. Deep . . .
HUFFINGTON: Have you ever been to Voice of San Diego?
NOONAN: The Voice of San Diego . . .?
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(DISCLAIMER: As with everything I write here, this is purely my own opinion, and not necessarily that of my employer, the North County Times.)
I don’t know quite what to say about Peggy Noonan.
I think that she is much more concerned with her own self-defined elitism than anything else.
Who is this woman and what did she do with the Peggy Noonan of olde? I miss that gal.
Dana, I dunno. Noonan is a print journo veteran, and like nearly everyone who has achieved prominence that way, she’s emotionally and intellectually invested in the old system and can’t imagine any other.
I see this constantly, in ill-informed attacks on the blogosphere and the Web in general. At the moment, Google is the biggest enemy to the know-nothings. Some are proposing that newspapers force people to pay by keeping their news off the Web, or agreeing to charge for it. Their stunted, monopolistic minds can’t grasp that on the Web, there is infinite competition.
Having a newspaper is now more a liability than an asset for newsgathering. It comes with tremendous overhead that’s fast becoming unsustainable. Web-only outfits, built from the ground up, don’t have that overhead to worry about.
In short, print publications must serve two masters. And we all know where that leads.
I agree with you Eric. Peggy Noonan is a little up her self and does look down her nose at new forms of journalism.
I deal with people like this locally – older people who are alert and politically active, who know how to use email but back away from blogs and even online comments at the local paper’s site. They seen content to forward chain emails, petitions and every sort of dubious plea and alarm, but are averse to voicing an opinion online. Something about it really intimidates them and they want it to go away. Plus, they would prefer that we all write letters to the editor.