Not Handling It Very Well

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• I think your comment misses the point. The fact is journalists with decades' worth of experience have done outstanding work over the years. To hold up Blair as the example rather than the exception is disingenuous. The cartoonist makes a valid point. Bloggers undeniably have a place but they should also do some introspection before lashing out each time somebody challenges their credentials.

• Actually, I think my comment hits the point dead-on. I'm using the editorial cartoonist's own fallacy -- oversimplification -- in making my point. Possession of a computer does not make a person a blogger any more than it makes him or her a systems analyst, but the editorial cartoonist has flattened the issue to just that.
  There is room for both journalists and bloggers in the news sphere: journalists have the training, resources and reputational capital (both on an individual level and as a member of an institution), while bloggers have the passion and often have the "inside track" and domain knowledge that a journalist wouldn't have.

• Hey! I'm tellin' Akin that you're using his "reputational capital" phrase. :)
  I think that some of the manistream journos have their knickers in a twist over the the "citizen journalist" label that has been applied to bloggers. The funny thing is that it's the media that's using that label more than bloggers themselves. While there are a few examples of bloggers reporting hard news (I think your own coverage of the PJNet conference is an example), most bloggers are more like citizen Op-Ed writers or columnists.
  Jim Elve