People often ask me what's wrong with journalism.
The answer comes down to one word -- arrogance. Even junior members of the trade think they're in a profession, whose job it is to rule on what's true and what's not, all decisions final.
Take William Beutler of The National Journal, for instance. Beutler just got a pretty amazing gig. As editor of the Hotline Blogometer he spends the day scouring the political blogosphere and tallying up the points. (He is still listed as writing The Washington Canard, but he doesn't update it often anymore. The picture is from that Web site. Beutler's a shy fella.)
It's hard work, as some in Washington might say. And mistakes will happen. Journalists complain that bloggers won't spend 5 minutes on the phone to get something right. Well, journalists won't spend 20 seconds on Google to do the same thing. And Google's improving much faster than the phone.
Anyway, Beutler's August 15 missive began by referencing Cindy Sheehan as an "alleged" gold star mother. I went ballistic. Whatever you think of Sheehan's protest, no one can argue that she is, in fact, a Gold Star Mother (all caps), this being " an organization of mothers who have lost a son or daughter in the service of our country."
After considering my e-mail for some time, Beutler made a slight change. He didn't acknowledge the mistake. He just took the alleged out. And gold star is still lower case, still in quotation marks.
Now, before you click below, get out your hankies.
Dana, I spend 6 hours a day scouring blogs, and I’m typing furiously up to deadline. I actually did hit Google, where I saw the term had some currency, but I didn’t honestly have more than 10 seconds to make a call. So I guess I made the wrong call. And I fixed it.
I do my best, but I’m just one person -- and I produced 4,300 words today. Laziness isn’t the problem here – harriedness is. Anyway, as I said, I did decide to change it. It’s all I can do.
WRONG!
Beutler is engaged in covering-up his original error. He didn't fully correct the error. And he's also full of excuses. He never even provided a link, as I did, to the organization Ms. Sheehan is a member of, by virtue of the fact that her son died in the Iraq War.
When people are that Clueless, and unwilling to come clean, is it any wonder that blogs begin to sound like a reasonable alternative? And we don't need your Blogometer to get our word out, Bill. We don't need your filter.
RSS works just fine.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. William Beutler on August 16, 2005 02:34 PM writes...
A few points worth correcting:
1. I never used the word "alleged" and I never meant to imply that Spc. Casey Sheehan was not killed in Iraq.
2. I was mostly unfamiliar with the term "gold star mother," and a cursory Google search didn't tell me how much currency it enjoyed.
3. Hence the term I did use, "so-called."
4. When I changed it based on a few similar complaints, I added an explanatory note at the bottom of the section, a fact Mr. Blankenhorn does not acknowledge.
5. For what it's worth, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. uses its namesake term in all-lowercase on its front page.
I have no quarrel with Mr. Blankenhorn, and I hope readers will draw their own conclusions.
Permalink to Comment2. William Beutler on August 16, 2005 02:36 PM writes...
So much for that being my last word.
Permalink to Comment3. Bradley on August 17, 2005 12:11 AM writes...
Beutler's Google search must give new meaning to "cursory." One of the first results I found was a White House proclamation (www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030925-11.html)
And that page, and the various American Gold Star Mothers pages, all used the term upper case.
"Alleged" vs. "so-called" is a distinction without a difference. Both inaccurately cast doubt.
Mr. Beutler, if you can't devote more than 10 seconds to "research" a question, The National Journal should hire another person to give you some help in getting it right the first time. 4,300 words in one day? There's no way to produce quality or accuracy at that pace. This reflects poorly on the National Journal, not just you.
Permalink to Comment4. Thuktun on August 17, 2005 10:53 AM writes...
While currently Google lists a number of highly-relevent sites at the top of "gold star mother" search results, it's at least possible that it didn't when Mr. Beutler performed its search. The results of the pagerank algorithm don't remain static over time.
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