Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Apology Watch, "a look at apologies in the news," is an entertaining new local blog. (via the bloghunter, GiT.) 11:51:27 AM    comment []

Just in time for the conference on blogging, journalism, and credibility, a not-very-credible piece of journalism about blogging from the New York Times. Sarah Boxer reports (to use the term loosely) on Iraq the Model, a pro-US Iraqi blog. Some critics ask if it's a US-backed propaganda tool. Fair enough, good question, interesting aspect of understanding blogs, let's start digging...or not. Boxer talks to one blogger suspicious of Iraq the Model's independence, and reads some comments at his blog. She talks to a former Iraq the Model blogger, but doesn't get anything from him that supports the theory. She does not seem to have talked to either of the remaining Iraq the Model bloggers, or to any of the people who have supported them, including those who met them in the United States. Mrs Cone.com, a journalist herself, was incredulous about the lack of reporting that seems to have gone into the NYT article, which appears above the fold in the Arts section. "The writer just parachutes into the blog world in December?," she said. "You would have to close your eyes to avoid running into Jeff Jarvis on this story." The credibility of the Iraqi bloggers -- of any bloggers -- is a reasonble subject for journalism. The Times could have written a credible article on this subject. But it didn't. Why not? Let's talk about it on Friday. UPDATE: BuzzMachine goes Jarvistic on the Times. Should be a fun conversation between Jill Abramson and Jeff, this weekend, huh? UPDATE: It's even worse than it appears: Boxer didn't even speak to one of the sources I credited her with -- the Martini Republic blogger. My bad. Her worse. 11:48:38 AM    comment []

Greensboro101 is holding an editorial meeting, open to the public, at 6 PM tomorrow at the Green Bean on South Elm Street, just before the Greensboro bloggers Meetup at the same location. The online alt-media hub is looking for people to contribute time, ideas, and expertise as it continues to develop into a diversified community site. From the site: This is an informal preliminary meeting to discuss the role of citizen editors for Greensboro101. Anybody is welcome to attend. Attending this meeting will not obligate you to further involvement, but it will be an opportunity for you to have a meaningful role in shaping a true citizens media. If you think you might be interested in joining the editorial team of Greensboro101, please join us on Wednesday. Hard to believe this thing started out as a simple blog aggregator just seven weeks ago. Then I said, "It's the start of something big," but I had no idea... 8:11:26 AM    comment []