If you’re scared, say your scared, Suffolk News Journal Blasts Bloggers
UPDATE 3: In some fairly shoddy webkeeping, the Suffolk News Herald has moved the original editorial. The new web url is now: http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/articles/2008/08/06/news/opinion-comment/our_opinion/opin879.txt
UPDATE 2: I just received an email… and I have a typo as well. My second “your” should have been “you’re”. Spell check worked. Grammar check didn’t. Also, it is the Suffolk News HERALD not Journal. I must have been thinking urinal or something.
UPDATE: Just grabbed my copy of the FREE North Suffolk Edition of the paper. The spelling error is in the print copy as well. What’s that saying about “glass houses”? “too wekes ago eye cudn’t evin speel jernalist, now eye r won!”
Well it would appear that the Suffolk News Journal may be afraid of bloggers. Are they worried about their circulation? Their validity as a media outlet? They should be.
The following editorial in today’s edition of this free newspaper (North Suffolk Edition) has this to say about bloggers:
The bloggers claim they should be included on the list because they are part of the area’s media.
That claim is simply nonsense.
Is it now? Well it would seem while you were writing up this little editorial, that “bloggers” were covering the Republican’s Revival (#dontgo) in Washington DC. Using the NEW media (as opposed to old, recycled paper media), the word was broadcast, live, as it was happening. Text, video and audio. By members of Congress and others. Try that with your paper.
The new media had this covered and broke the story on Friday, August 1st, while you were putting your tabloids in free boxes around town.
The new media has given interviews to much bigger old media outlets than the bird cage liner you call a newspaper. While your paper was covering Little League Baseball, the new media was covering events that will affect how much it costs you to put your newspaper out there. Oil. Energy. Economy. (Please feel free to check on the impact of the new media at http://dontgomovement.com)
Members of the new media are credentialed as “press” at both the Republican and Democratic Conventions this fall. Yet it’s nonsense? Seems folks with bigger irons in the fire than the Suffolk News Journal and the City of Suffolk are paying attention to the new media.
For a newspaper that has to GIVE copies away to get circulation numbers up in the fastest growing part of town you would think you would be a little more supportive of potential subscribers and even develop a working relationship with them.
Anyone with a computer can be a blogger. The ability to type doesn’t make one a legitmate (sic) journalist.
And based on that statement the same could be said for newspaper journalists. Please use spell check. You spelled legitimate incorrectly.
Suffolk News Herald - Suffolk’s Information and News Source
Screen shot of misspelling in editorial before they correct it:
Comments
By Lennie on August 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Great post. My local school districts say the same thing about my blog and refuse to acknowledge me as a journalist. Guess I should think about suing as well.
By Michael Tefft on August 6th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I hope you mail a copy of your post to the management of the Suffolk News Journal. They are obviously clueless about social media. They need to replace the calendars in their office. It is 2008, not 1945.
By Alexe on August 6th, 2008 at 15:56 pm
I should sue Lennie for thinking that he should sue a school district for not acknowledging him as a journalist. It is ridiculous statements like that which makes people so opposed to bloggers. And as for Michael, just because it’s 2008 doesn’t mean that every fool with a blog has to be acknowledged as a journalist. You have every right to post your blog (as ridiculous and ignorant as it may be) but don’t expect everyone to acknowledge your garbage as legitimate social commentary.
By Roger A. Leonard, MPA on August 6th, 2008 at 20:13 pm
I posted to the SNH the following comment:
It is interesting to see this type of opinion, opined on this restrictive forum that hangs itself out to be representative of the community. The Suffolk News Herald has sunk to an all time low to say the least and I also would like to know who wrote this article…??? They must live on another planet from the rest of us. The purported purpose of the Press Releases is to disseminate PUBIC information. Why would there be any reluctance to give it to anyone that wanted to spread it wide and far? It seems that the statement that “we don’t want some people to have it” is more than true.
It seems that the SNH has become little more than the mouthpiece for the City Administration. When you purport to be unbiased, it would help to have fact and deportment on your side. It is also interesting to see how the SNH manipulates comments and articles for a certain point of view, so perspective is in the eye of the beholder…
Any comments???
Roger
By Kat on August 6th, 2008 at 20:32 pm
Well, Scott, I left a wee comment over at the News-Herald’s OpEd on this…. Of course, I wonder if they’ll let it through, although I refrained from using vulgar language.
Gadzooks, the idiocy of their position boggles the mind!
By Kat on August 6th, 2008 at 20:33 pm
Ooo! I forgot! I copy/pasted it:
Think that’s acerbic enough?
By Dave Mastio on August 6th, 2008 at 22:49 pm
I just noted back on my blog that the mature and upstanding journalists at the Suffolk newspaper have removed all the comments from the editorial including mine and Kat’s.
Trackbacks