October 02, 2004
VETERAN JOURNALISTS FOR BLOGS
A reader responds to anti-blogger Minneapolis Star Tribune journalist Nick Coleman:
I grew up with a great journalist. My father traveled all over the world, gathering evidence, taking interviews, visiting locations, and getting his facts straight. For forty years, he wrote for a magazine that had the largest circulation in the world. He had an unlimited expense account and he knew how to get a story. He had meetings at the Pentagon, the White House and Langley. He recieved death threats and was audited by the IRS eight years in a row for publishing unflattering articles about one presidential administration.
Are those "journalistic" qualifications? He wrote at home, at midnight and would've worked in his pajamas, but he said he couldn't concentrate if he was too comfortable. We live in Minneapolis, and the Strib is our paper. He doesn't bother with it. He has been retired for over a decade and almost all he reads now are blogs. He loves them. He is now addicted to Powerline, and Lileks, and Hewitt, among others ...
There’s more. Read the whole thing.
Posted by Tim Blair at October 2, 2004 08:17 PMYeah I read that post and thought at the time,that's what jouralism should be.He sounds like a great guy, I hope he enjoys his retirement.
Posted by: gubbaboy at October 2, 2004 at 08:30 PMI've had my internet connection for 3 months. I used to be a C-Span, cable news junkie. This is my new addiction. Wonder how many others?
Posted by: kjo at October 3, 2004 at 02:54 AMCripes, blogs are my only source of news here at Bagram. I am just lucky enough to get a little computer time to keep up with news (and gecko scarfing bird descriptions - say, can we get one of those here, maybe a 6 foot tall Taliban eating Kookaburra?)
Posted by: Major John at October 3, 2004 at 03:02 AMSee, here's the thing. Journalists have all, up till now, wanted to be Bob Woodward and/or Carl Bernstein. In the future, journalists are going to want to be Tim Blair and/or James Lileks/Glenn Reynolds et al .
Posted by: Rebecca at October 3, 2004 at 04:01 AMFYI
Nick Coleman is supposed to be on as a guest on the Northern Alliance Radio Show in the 2 o'clock hour U.S. Central standard time, the 6 a.m. hour Oz time, they do stream on their web-site. The hosts cautioned that they may well be stood up however.
Posted by: Thomas at October 3, 2004 at 05:56 AMI read that post as well. It was moving and impressive. Unfortunately, I don't think that the standards of that retired reporter are common any more. I wish him a good and long retirement
But it would be nice to (once again) read an article without investigating the news service and/or author first.
Really.
Posted by: The Real JeffS at October 3, 2004 at 06:17 AMNick inded did stiff us on the Northern Alliance show Saturday, although he was never "supposed" to be on. He ignored our many invitations. Probably out chasing tornados or something.
Check out this post for more on Nick Coleman's brand of credentialed journalism.