PeoriaStory

Blogger blues

PEORIA -- Two prominent Peoria bloggers have expressed frustration with the time and commitment that blogging demands.

From Bill Dennis of Peoria Pundits: "Count me along those bloggers who need a 36-hour-day to fit all the blogging they want to do into a schedule that has to include work, sleep, food and at least some social interaction with friends and family."

From C. J. Summers of The Peoria Chronicle: "I’ve been noticing lately that Billy Dennis has really stepped up his citizen journalism. He’s always been the “blogfather,” of course, but I’ve noticed an increase in his first-hand reporting lately. He’s doing an especially good job of covering the 18th congressional district race.

"I frankly can’t keep up with him anymore. If he keeps this up, I may give up my blog and just occasionally post guest commentary on his site."

Duh -- blogging can be work.

It's journalism when done right. That means covering events, interviewing people, finding information. That can be fun, but it's also work, and few people can afford to pursue full time work without a paycheck attached.

Even if a blogger/journalist doesn't need a paycheck to survive, other interesting events intervene: vacations, entertainment, family obligations. Soon it's tempting to say 'to heck with that meeting, that issue. Who cares anyway!'

That said, let's hope Bill Dennis and C. J. Summers don't become blogger dropouts. They perform very valuable services to the community, digging out information and presenting opinions and analysis that the mainstream media may not have the resources to present.

Even when they are wrong, or wrong headed, the work of bloggers -- mostly volunteer apparently -- matters as much or more to the community than the activities many volunteers pursue, from organizing fund raisers and running interest groups to backing politicians.

Information and discussion fuels our democracy and keeps us relatively free in a world that wants to control everyone.

Keep on truckin'.

--Elaine Hopkins

Netroots hos?

PEORIA -- Here's an interesting story from today's New York Times website:

Headline: "Blogger to Pay $30,000 in S.E.C. Case"

Story begins: "Prominent liberal blogger Jerome Armstrong has agreed to pay nearly $30,000 in fines in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that Armstrong touted the stock of a software company on Raging Bull, an Internet bulletin board, in 2000, without disclosing that he was being paid to do so."

This story and others linked to it on the Times site reveal how bloggers often are quietly, even secretly, paid to promote causes, political candidates, products, and in this instance, shares of stock. The former is legal but unethical. The latter is illegal, a close cousin to fraud.

The blogosphere apparently is rife with undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Is it a conflict if a restaurant reviewer gets free meals? If a travel story stemmed from a free trip? If a theater reviewer gets free tickets?

Mainstream journalism tradition answers with a big "YES," it is a conflict. Because it can influence coverage.

The Times story and subsequent links focus on politics, and how liberal bloggers were on the payroll of candidates they were promoting or not criticizing. Conservatives likely are doing it too.

Then there's the firewall that should exist between advertising and news coverage, as it does in reputable mainstream media outlets, at least allegedly. Where is it in the blogosphere? Invisible?

Bloggers need to clean up their acts! A strong bloggers organization might demand, at worst, disclosure of conflicts and at best, NO conflicts. Membership in the organization would be contingent on such standards, a kind of Good Housekeeping or Consumers Report seal of approval.

Maybe then bloggers will be taken seriously by the courts and other organizations. Until then, reader beware!

--Elaine Hopkins