Politico writes today that the left is kicking the right’s butt when it comes to on-line journalism because folks on the right aspire to be William F. Buckley, Jr. while folks on the left want to write for the NY Times.
While conservatives are devoting much of their Internet energy to analysis, their counterparts on the left are taking advantage of the rise of new media to create new institutions devoted to unearthing stories, putting new information into circulation and generally crowding the space traditionally taken by traditional media. And it almost always comes at the expense of GOP politicians.
While online Republicans chase the allure of punditry and commentary, Democrats and progressives are pursuing old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting…
It’s an interesting theory…and it might be true.
However, to me, blogging has never really been about being a journalist — or becoming the next Bill Buckley. And it certainly hasn’t been about being part of an organized left v. right campaign. It’s been about sharing information, ideas, discussion, and, yes, opinion. It’s a little bit of everything.
Some sites do better at highlighting specific areas, such as journalism or opinion, than others, but blogs are as individual as, well, finger prints. No two are exactly alike.
While the right might not have folks out “pounding the pavement” and seeking out the next big “Rather-gate”, perhaps that’s because they have day jobs.
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. 
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Coincidentally enough, I’ve been contemplating something similar to the thesis of this article for my own website. I’ve been seeking an expansion beyond blogging that includes forums and blogs for visitors. But I also want my site to have a component of breking news. I’m not sure if I want to become a news site or to investigate news stories broken by mainstream sources. Most outlets parrot the press releases and news conferences from their government sources, then don’t ask any deeper questions than that, and I’d like to ask the questions that question government’s authority.
But I’m neither right nor left. I’m a sovereign individualist (think Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Adam Smith…). I don’t want to be the libertarian Bill Buckley, nor do I want to be the libertarian NYT. My goal is to be a citizen journalist and an activist. I wonder how someone like me fits into the model that the Politico article has built here.
I don’t think Politico’s comments are restricted to the blogosphere. Republicans in general don’t flood the news industry trying to be reporters.
Journalists are people who report what other people are doing. Maybe Republicans are too busy actually doing than to spend their lives reporting what other people do.
I suppose that might be related to my point. I just don’t think there are enough journalists questioning what government people are doing to us. The current crop of journalists just assume government has whatever authority it claims to have, and doesn’t force the bureaucrats to explain themselves enough. If the “journalists” aren’t going to be the watchdogs, citizen journalists will have to be.
Then again, citizen journalists apparently aren’t journalist enough for bureaucrats in Suffolk, or police in Chesapeake.
I think the current crop of jouranlists desire to “build a relationship” with government sources and therefore they stay away from reporting on situations that might cause their government sources to stop retruning their calls.