RSS 2.0 FeedBig Media Really Is Afraid Of Blogs
by Doug MataconisFurther proof of that here:
“You’re going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe. All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I’m up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn’t left the efficiency apartment in two years” — Brian Williams, anchor of the “NBC Nightly News,” speaking before New York University journalism students on the challenges traditional journalism faces from online media.
For the record, my name isn’t Vinny, I don’t live in an efficiency apartment, and I don’t blog in a bathrobe.
You know, the nice thing about bloogers is that they are honest in their biases. I don’t think I can say the same thing about Mr. “I have credentials” Williams. Give me a couple bloggers, the option to read what I want, and I can easily live without Brian Williams or his network news show. I can figure out the truth on my own, even if it does come from some guy living in an efficiency apartment.
Comment by trumpetbob15 — April 13, 2007 @ 1:33 pmMr. Williams seems to confuse “developing credentials” as a journalist (a word that once meant one who reported events without editorial commentary) with his right to hold an opinion. Mr. Williams seems to believe that only those who have been in the field for a long time are informed enough to have an opinion. It appears to be arrogance for him to characterize all persons who post content to the internet as marginal. He believes his (and his colleague’s) opinion are the only informed point of view.
I see it differently: Vinny is as entitled to hold an opinion, to express opinion, or to be wrong as Mr. Williams.
Get over it, Mr. Williams. You’re not as influential as you think you are.
Comment by Mark T — April 13, 2007 @ 2:40 pmPerhaps this wouldn’t be the case if Williams and his ilk were even half as representative as Vinny.
His remark shows his elitism. Is living in an efficiency somehow a defect or evidence that one doesn’t think correctly, Mr. Williams?
Comment by trav.is — April 13, 2007 @ 3:58 pmI think part of the problem is that Mr. Williams is essentially in the same situation the horse-cart makers were in when the automobile turned up.
The internet is making the teleprompter reader irrelevent. I can’t remember the last time I watched any nightly news program.
The old media is dying. I, for one, won’t miss it.
Comment by tkc — April 13, 2007 @ 4:09 pm