When she bolts the barn

Peggy Noonan -- Yes, THE Peggy Noonan -- emails to clarify some points we misconstrued in our previous post about her op ed in this morning's Opinion Journal:

Sissy, I've written re bloggers before, and sent from the WSJ site the most recent piece before this.  Two points.  1. When I said some young reporter will leave the Times or Newsweek and start the Daily Joe I meant -- literally -- a reporter whose work is admired by MSM editors, and who leaves the MSM.  Malkin, Kaus, Sullivan were all professional journalists who made their names as columnists.  No surprise they found the web congenial, and the web returned the compliment.  I mean a non-columnist who's respected by the MSM for sheer non-opinion reporting expertise, and who his colleagues know would have risen to prominence in the MSM.  When he/she bolts the barn, runs free and becomes a force that's going to force MSM editors to admit . . . reluctant respect for the blog form.  This may have been unclear, but it's what I meant.  2.  I can't remember my second point.  I'll go back to your site.  Regards, Peggy Noonan

Oh, sweet mystery of life.  Thank you, dearest Peggy.  All good points, well made and well taken. Forgive our giddiness at being emailed by one of our most-admired wordsmiths in the universe.  Peggy continues in email #2:

No, it doesn't have to be a conflict of interest.  If I were a great publisher I would take aside my best young reporter and say, "I want you to become the most unpopular man in the history of the Times.  I want you to run a Timesblog that questions our reporting in real time, and gathers and posts criticisms from other blogs.  I'll pay you well and give you a five year contract but you're going to be hated by those whose admiration you'd hoped to win, and you're going to be admired by people you have no time for.  You'll probably wind up with no future at the paper, in part because you'll criticize me and I won't like it.  But you'll be a force and a voice of respect by the time you're done, and you can go on to column writing, punditing, book writing, and being ignored socially by your betters, including me.  Game?"  Someone will be game.  And if he's good it would be good for the Times, and good for all who read it.  There.  I may be wrong but I want to be clearly wrong.  Anyway, that's what I think.  Peggy Noonan  (Thanks for the sort of nice things you said about me.)

You know what, beautiful lady?  You're definitely right about the reporter turned blogger -- please forgive us for having missed your point and shooting off our mouth about it -- but the jury is still out about the integrity of a blogger's being paid by big media to tell it like it is. Probably not possible.  Either you is or you isn't my baby.

Comments

[Teresa]

Holy smokies!!! May I swoon at your feet? You got an email from Peggy Noonan in response to your post! (I have never blogged about her work... but still... WOW)

I think I rather agree with you about your second point. It's very very very difficult to be objectively critical about an entity that pays your salary - even if that is supposed to be your job.

Also, may I add, I think newspapers would be better served by hiring one or two people to peruse blogs, looking for blogger reaction to stories and bringing it to the attention of the powers that be when they find it to be applicable.

Now I realize that not all criticism is right or fair - but, I think the news organizations should take advantage of what is out there for all eyes to see. After all - one single blogger seldom, if ever, catches more than a few of the gaffes that are printed. While the current blogosphere offers up people with wide ranges of expertise that can and do critique news articles.

Not to mention that unfair criticism can also take root and do damage if left unchecked... (see many MSM articles about the military for details)

[ransom]

I think the fundamental mistake Ms. Noonan makes is the assumption that the blogoshphere needs a blogger who not only passed the J-school smell test but also is highly regarded in the MSM for reportage.

First, what publisher/editor is going to wake up tomorrow and reverse engineer their mindset and target their own house?

Second, what top gun is going to become a one-person rat squad? No, it would have to be a purposeful defection, a la Bernie Goldberg and then all ties are cut anyway.

So far that hasn't happened. No inside hot shot at CBS broke the real Rather/Mapes story. Nope, not a one. Even ideological competitors can't deal with it, see WSJ/Stephens on Eason Jordan.