In an absolutely must read column called "Worlds Colliding" by baseball blogger Aaron Gleeman, of Aaron's Baseball Blog , Aaron dissects how another blogger was shunned by the mainstream journalism world.
In a blog post that cements Aaron Gleeman's reputation as much more than "a baseball blogger", Aaron describes how fellow basball blogger John Bonnes was treated as an outsider, and pushed aside, by members of the mainstream sports writing clique.
As I reported in April, 2004, John Bonnes of the Twins Geek blog moved over to the well known Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper's sports section. He has written an indepth baseball column for that publication, similar to the ones enjoyed by his blog readers, until now.
In his final column, John Bonnes describes the final clash of the bloggers with the journalists.
The reasons for John's leaving the newspaper are not entirely what we all expected either:
But the most serious criticism was from journalists who felt that the weblog was an end-around of their union, providing additional sports coverage without paying the dictated wage to a member of the writer's guild. In the bigger picture, a divisive presidential campaign increased tensions, when biased bloggers would take shots at mainstream media coverage. Many journalists ended up reacting to bloggers the way pharisees reacted to self-proclaimed prophets.
There is substance in the journalists' criticism. Blogging is much different than journalism, but readers can get the two confused. Journalists generally need to demonstrate some balance to any issue they examine, regardless of how demented the other side of an issue is. A blogger usually wears his bias on his sleeve. Newspapers have structures in place to make sure their information is accurate and not libelous, like editors and lawyers. There are absolutely no controls on a blog. Professional writers roll their eyes at weblogs that are poorly written or barely readable. Bloggers will point out that still leaves hundreds of weblogs that are attracting as much on-line traffic as mainstream columnists.
Aaron Gleeman summarizes the difficulties, faced by bloggers, when confronted by entrenched members of the mainstream media:
The same is true about myself and hundreds of other people out there writing blogs, whether about sports or politics or just random events in life. Just people with voices and keyboards, nothing else. And while there are many members of the mainstream media who react well to this relatively new writing phenomenon, the overwhelming majority have, at the very least, some resentment.
One fact is made very plain by the case of John Bonnes, whose blog was one of the very first sports blogs that I ever read frequently, by the way. Blogs and bloggers are still not completely accepted as full members of the journalism community.
John Bonnes was very gracious in his farewell column, and as a result, did all bloggers a tremendous service. He showed the class that has made his baseball column one of the best, and that bloggers can be some of the nicest people in the world.
When I proposed the Blog Chamber of Commerce concept, one of the main reasons was to help enhance the reputation and credibility of bloggers and their blogs.
Doubters in the Blog Chamber of Commerce idea felt there was little need for any such concern. They felt that blogs were already an established form of media outlet, and there were other fish to fry.
Mainstream journalists have just shown, that like other professions, they will stubbornly defend their territory from encroachment, by those they deem to be "amateurs". There are some difficulties with that rather negative stance, however.
Bloggers are not attempting to replace newspaper, television, magazine, and radio. Instead, bloggers are simply seeking recognition as another legitmate form of media. In the early days of television, that now ubiquitous medium was treated as an interloper to be largely ignored as well.
Blogs are not attempting to supplant the role of the press. Bloggers are attemtpting to enhance communication and interaction between writer and reader in an entirely new way.
In the end, however, the move of John Bonnes and his blog to the mainstream, turned out to be simply another turf war. The established media is now in the self defeating and shortsighted position of fighting a rearguard action.
In the end, turf protection is a losing battle. Instead of fighting bloggers, journalists should be encouraging their freedom of expression.
Unfortunately, that day is not yet here, as old prejudices die hard.
As we have seen from the John Bonnes incident, bloggers and blogs still have miles to go before full acceptance as a full fledged media format is achieved.
John Bonnes was one of the first bloggers to cross over the great divide to become part of mainstream journalism.
That trip was not very well received by the tradtional media at all.
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