Steve Clemons, Jim VandeHei and why I'm a blogger

steve clemons, the publisher of the washington note weblog has my great respect... i follow twn regularly and rarely fail to come away with value added... i do sometimes feel, however, that steve's shoes may be tied a little too tight... the following comes from his post describing friday's washington post online political discussion with jim vandehei, wapo's white house correspondent, in which blogs and bloggers - with the exception of twn - got roundly dissed...

In the early part of discussion, a reader asked VandeHei what sources he uses to "get his news":

Baton Rouge, La.: Jim - as a reporter, where do you go to get your news? You're obviously well-informed about the topics that you cover and you gather a lot of information yourself, but do you utilize other newspapers and blogs to get information as well?
Jim VandeHei: we get our information from taking to sources, reading other publications and sifting through records or documents. I do not find blogs a useful source of information.

The comment that VandeHei is not into blogs got some riled up. However, I think that he has highly valid concerns about the still un-evolved standards in blog journalism and commentary.

Here is the exchange:

Rochester, N.Y.: "I do not find blogs a useful source of information" Boy are you out of touch.
Jim VandeHei: I hope I am not out of touch. Blogs, or at least those I have read, seem to react more to what we write.

There are a few exceptions where bloggers are acting as serious reporters and digging up information. Steve Clemons, who writes The Washington Note, comes to mind as one source of information on national security matters I might not find elsewhere. Unfortunately, I also find a lot of misinformation on other blogs.

There are other bloggers out there that work hard at adding value to their published product -- and who do some very good investigative journalism -- but they are few.

i can only speak for myself, but i am blogging for two reasons and two reasons only... one, i think the u.s. is in the midst of the most serious threat to its constitution and its integrity as a nation it has ever experienced and rather than sitting on my ass, fuming, i am giving voice to my deep concerns by publishing a weblog... quite frankly, mr. vandehei, i really could care less about reacting to what you write... i care much more about discerning patterns in news and events and i will seek the pieces of those patterns wherever i can find them... are bloggers reactionary...? oh, hell, yes, but i trust my own intelligence and instincts to separate the wheat from the chaff... are traditional journalists providing us with the real news and information we so desperately need...? damn little, i'm sorry to say, which brings me to the second reason why i started and continue to maintain my weblog...

by publishing the patterns that i'm seeing emerge along with my - admittedly - biased personal commentary, if i can help enlighten even one person, i will consider it a job well done... i make no pretense of investigative journalism nor do i make a case for exposing new and earth-shattering information... but, by laying out the bits and pieces of what's going on, a pattern emerges expressed by what i choose to pay attention to... i believe i am offering the pieces of a puzzle that, when assembled, reveals an increasingly horrifying picture of a country descending into fascism...

and as for "the still un-evolved standards in blog journalism and commentary," gimme a break... it's the goddam EVOLVED standards that have led us to the current sorry state of the traditional media, steve... i say, if what we have out there now represents evolution, i don't want it...

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