jlee562
I'll Lock Up
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You're right to point out that blogs aren't a substitute for local news. At least none of the ones I've seen. They may exist out there, but to be honest, I'm not a huge blog reader.
I do think though, that blogs are more than editorials. If we look at Sullivan's again (only because it's the one I'm most familiar with), his blog was an exceptional source of information on the 2009 election protests in Iran, as well as the Libyan uprising. Both were events that, as someone who studies international relations and is familiar with the tenets of journalism (my thesis adviser was a foreign bureau chief for the LA Times), were not covered very well by western media outlets. For someone like me who takes an interest in those kinds of topics, what The Dish did was to relay first person accounts vis-a-vis social media (which is another "like or not" facet of the world), first hand accounts from bloggers in those respective countries, analysis from commentators of both sides of the political spectrum, and the reaction(s) of the international community.
I would tend to agree with the idea that pre-internet journalism was qualitatively superior, but there's that old expression, sometimes you can't go home. Pandora's box is already opened, and as such, I'm totally alright with blogs filling some of the void.
uke:
