View From a Height

Bloggers on The West Wing

NBC paid homage to bloggers this evening on The West Wing, having Josh get caught on digicam plowing into a Prius with an SUV. He then calls the blogger in question and, despite warnings from the political officer that "he's not a journalist," proceeds to lead into him like Mike Tyson digging into a fresh ear. Naturally, even as he's on the phone, a post about the big-time addition to the blog's off-line comment section shows up.

This (probably unintentionally) points out a problem that bloggers are having to come to grips with - journalistic ethics. Bloggers, if they don't want to rely on newspapers for the sole source of news, will have to cultivate sources, and will find themselves having to play by rules that sources are used to playing by. It wouldn't surprise me if, in a couple of years, a blogger who abused a government official rather than cultivating the relationship was frowned on.

This may also have been a swipe at Wonkette for printing exit-poll data. Personally, I think it was horrifically irresponsible of both her and Drudge to do so. The reason the networks sit on that stuff is that it might influence voting. I remember a time when they didn't do so, and they were blamed for inflating both of Reagan's wins because of it. Regardless of the possibly-deliberate malice they showed in Florida 2000, it's a sound policy and there are sound reasons for it.

That said, it's also apparent that blogs work in a different medium from the MSM. Blogs can draw on a readership with expertise to move a story forward, and don't necessarily need "Sources" to do the kind of work they do. Look at the number of people who write into Instapundit or Powerline. Access to inside information is only one way to advance a story; knowledge of how the world works, or how specialized worlds work, is another.