The revolution will be blogged...

Instapundit links to this L.A. Times editorial about the potential evils of blogging. Gee, an old media organ that has been heavily discredited in the blogopshere complaining about bloggers. This is the modern equivilant of buggy whip manufacturers complaining about how cars suck.

The crowning paragraph is this one:

However, bloggers, with few exceptions, don't add reporting to the personal views they post online, and they see journalism as bound by norms and standards that they reject. That encourages these common attributes of the blogosphere: vulgarity, scorching insults, bitter denunciations, one-sided arguments, erroneous assertions and the array of qualities that might be expected from a blustering know-it-all in a bar.

Hmm, vulgarity, scorching insults, and being a know-it-all? Sounds like a Maureen Dowd column.

Most bloggers I read link heavily to both other blogs and to mainstream newspapers and magazines - and critique each other pretty heavily. And many of them do their own reporting as well.

It also includes this sentance: There is already talk of bloggers who would consider publishing items for cash and commercial blogs that tout products.
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Great job, Alex Jones. Way to show the blogosphere how to, to paraphrase your earlier statement, "subscribe to norms and standards that members of the blogosphere reject" - by making an unsubstantied claim with nothing to back it up.

News flash - most bloggers have very strong opinions on things and are more than willing to share those opinions. They don't need someone to pay them to express those opnions (although they do appriciate it when you click on their google ads). Furthermore, because they have strong feelings on issues, they aren't likely to change their minds based on cash. Most readers know that the writing of bloggers is just opinions, and usually let other bloggers know, either through comments, emails, or their own blogs, when they disagree. The success of blogs is because people read them KNOWING they are getting someone's views.