Nashville TV station WKRN plans to put video bloggers' work on broadcast television, according to Terry Heaton and Rex Hammock, reporting an announcement by the station's (blogging) general manager at a blogger gathering.
The Nashville Scene's response includes this passage, which Rex comments on at length:
"A video camera and an Internet connection do not a reporter make. But
the same can be said of a journalism degree. What matters is nerve,
scruple and a willingness to look where no one else will[~]and to keep
looking when everyone else says move on."
My comment: Professional news organizations often don't have enough people to do enough looking, but sometimes they bring great resources and courage to a story. Sometimes journalism takes nerve, money and a full-time effort, but sometimes it just takes being there, knowing what's going on, and being willing to talk to strangers. Bloggers can do that, and sometimes they may get better answers if the "strangers" are neighbors.
I agree with almost everything he said... except this part (which, in-context at Rex's blog, clearly wasn't meant to criticize journalism education... see comments link below):
Please, don't fall into the trap of confusing blogging with anything
that has something remotely to do with journalism school. It has more
to do with having the skills to recognize great barbecue when you taste
it -- and the thrill of sharing the discovery with a few friends. That,
and changing the world.
Video bloggers don't need to be clones of
J-school-trained professionals, but I do think journalism school should
have a lot to do with changing the world too... and about recognizing great barbecue when you taste it... literally and figuratively.
However, I wouldn't mind if newspapers and local television left the
barbecue reviews to the bloggers and put almost all of their dwindling numbers of professionals on
the "civic affairs" or "public watchdog" beats. (Go to a few political
events in this part of the world and you'll get to sample plenty of barbecue withgout having to write about it.)
Speaking of video blogging, Nielsen Netratings says 5.6 million Web users recently downloaded
a video podcast (4 percent of Web users). Nielsen says 6.6 percent of
the U.S. adult online population, or 9.2 million Web users, recently
downloaded an audio podcast. Lots of other numbers in the PDF report;
but the press release gets tangled up in using "podcasters" to mean
"podcast listeners," which makes for an apples-oranges comparison with "bloggers," which means "blog publishers." Oh well. To "er" is human.
12:50:39 PM 
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