Stress distinction between blog, journalism

This letter to the USA Today caught my eye.

Here's why... I get "blog" fatigue when I attempt to follow a thread in the comments, particularly when the subject matter is religion or politics. From my perspective, a writer may lob a subject that is sure to cause dissention and a exchange of shouting back in forth not unlike crossfire on cable news. Everybody is talking over each other, everybody wants to be heard, but no one is listening.

I'm tired of snarky comments, USA bashing, Bush blaming, who's racist, all men are bad, left wing, right wing, religion is for the weak, all hail Islam, women are trash, Katrina, I've got low self esteem and I'm blaming you and the Republicans, politics is bad, but I'm not registered to vote type of change my diapers and wipe my butt blog postings when it is based out of anger for the sake of getting someone to go ballistic.

I knew an office mate whose major was in psychology - his MO was to get a rise out of people just so he could enjoy the frustration it caused within the office with his outlandish comments. He was voted off the cubicle island. Too much noise or in some cases, pettiness for my brain to digest.

There's a bit of Biblical wisdom in a passage from 2 Timothy: "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." We are instructed rather to "not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." I'm just not the quarrelsome type, so like the TV, I just move on. Now if you're looking for a solution, I can work with that anyday.

Last, with regard to John's letter below, everything sounds right until one hears the other side of the story.

Stress distinction between blog, journalism
Posted 9/5/2006 11:28 PM ET

Thanks for giving space to Bruce Kluger's commentary on the influence of blogging (" Lieberman, 'Snakes' and the seductive mythology of the blogosphere," The Forum, Aug. 30).

Three years ago, almost no one knew what the word "blog" meant. Today, my mother might be one of the last blogger holdouts.

Most disconcerting, however, is the increasing influence of bloggers on the mainstream news media. Fifteen years ago, I was a newspaper reporter and copy editor. I was trained to understand how to gather and disseminate information, how to verify facts with multiple sources, how to correctly utilize a confidential or off-the-record source, how to ensure accuracy and truth in reporting. Sometimes, my editors and I got it wrong; mostly we didn't. But it took time -- a lot of time -- to ensure that our reporting was accurate, thorough and balanced.

Today's bloggers not only print information at the merest whiff of gossip and innuendo, but their "reports" (most of which are probably no more than exaggerated speculation) are also more and more often reported in the mainstream news media -- in the process granting them a false legitimacy.

These days, the guiding principle seems to be that if it appears anywhere in text form -- whether in print, online or on television -- it's journalism.

That's just not the case. If the journalism profession is to continue to thrive and be meaningful to our society, journalists will need to quickly begin making distinctions between the great care it takes to do their job well and the fly-by-night, poor "reporting" of bloggers.

John Singh, Oakland