Drezner notes the latest thing surrounding Bill Keller, the whip over at the New York Times. He’s apparently been talking with quite a few people on the topic.
THe message he wants to send is clear; it shows up in ever one of the recent interviews I can find of the man. One Drezner links is of this report by Amanda Erickson in the Columbia Spectator:
“Keller also sees “blogging,” or online writing that blurs news and commentary, as a mixed blessing. While he celebrated the blogger’s ability to uncover breaking news, he noted that a blog’s inherent bias might be detrimental to the reader. “A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” he said, noting that it can sometimes fall as low as being a “one man circle jerk.”
He also links Jeff Jarvis, (Hardly a right wing idealouge, he…) who quotes Keller this way:
“”bloggers… are paranoid, propagandistic, unreliable, hate-filled, self-indulgent, self-important and humorless.”
Hmmm. He must be reading DeLong.
That snark aside, Keller’s concerns about bias within the Blogging world are correct. However, he seems to forget that bias runs both ways… unlike that bias he refuses to acknoledge…. that within the MSM, and more specifically, within his own paper.
That’s interesting, given that without that overt MSM leftist bias, blogging as a medium would likely not exist at all.
The reason he doesn’t admit such things is obvious; it would point to a major failure on the part of he and his like. It would also require his worldview to be exposed as such. More, it would require a change on his part.
Tags: BitsBlog
