The Coffeespy

Unless you’ve had your head in a hole, you know that Joseph Rago published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Blog Mob: Written by Fools to be Read by Imbeciles.”  Inside, Rago alternatively speaks on the importance of blogs and then derides the bloggers themselves as parasites:

The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps.

Interesting, especially given the Washington Times, one of those organizations Rago believes the blogs leech from, story on bloggers that have cast the pinnacle of journalistic industry, the Associated Press, in a dubious light.  From the Early Birded Washington Times piece:

Media critics and Internet bloggers are questioning the credibility of an Associated Press source in Iraq, claiming that “police captain Jamil Hussein” does not exist, though he has been cited in 60 AP dispatches over the past two years.

Two of the skeptics — syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin and former CNN news chief Eason Jordan — say they will go to Iraq to find the elusive Capt. Hussein in hopes of proving that the venerable wire service was either practicing shoddy journalism or had been dangerously duped by a media-savvy terrorist or enemy agent.

Well, that’s strange.  According to Rago, bloggers get their news from the media, not the other way around.

What Rago either didn’t learn while he researched his piece or simply chose to ignore is that blogs are important because they aren’t written by journalists exclusively.  This means that some blogs written on the war in Iraq are written by people who have been to and fought in that war, not simply received their journalism degree at Local U and emailed their “man in Baghdad.”  Bloggers are law professors, doctors, politicians, soccer moms, single fathers, teenagers, and, yes, even some journalists.  What you get in blogs are the views from the people, Mr. Rago.  They’re not always pretty and they’re not always well thought out, but they are certainly significant to the people who have taken the time to write that first entry and are absolutely pristine sources for understanding what is behind the prevailing political views of the time.

Seems a shame that a journalist would think so little of other peoples’ thoughts, especially since it’s his job to capture the atmosphere of the present for posterity.

Note: Reports coming out today are stating that Jamil Hussein has been found and is an actual police captain.  He is due to be arrested for breaking his non-disclosure agreement signed as a condition of employment.  Typically, leftist blogs are assuming that because he exists, his information is beyond reproach.  This ignores the original problem with the “burning six” reporting in which none of the six apparently have family members, bodies, or even left a charred spot on the ground that locals could point to.  There is also a fair amount of schadenfreude from the hindsight crowd.

Quick picks from both sides of the arena:

• Malkin’s round-up of reactions to the AP’s story that the AP’s source has been found, thereby clearing the AP of any suspicion.  Everyone clear that the AP is heavily involved?
• Terri at I think ^(link) therefore I err says now that’s he been identified, perhaps he can provide some evidence?  A family member?  Something?
• Adrian Monck believes that since Jamil Hussein is a person everything’s spiffy.
• Protein Wisdom, who is about to be blogrolled, offers up the facts still outstanding if you’re interested in the story itself and not simply hoping your readers are superficial, vacuous dimwits that won’t read any other sources (nod to Monck).