Two local journalists were assaulted on Saturday, June 28, 2008 in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. They were standing back, out of the way, simply trying to cover a news story about a "man down" very near the office of 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore. (
Story here.)
I was one of the two journalists. Craig Gernhardt was the other. We are known as "bloggers," but we are also writers. We write about local news. Although it may sound silly to say so, it is literally true that we cover current events in Chicago's 49th Alderman Ward better than NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even the News-Star …. combined.
Yet, the reaction we got from the police and paramedics was nothing less than hostile. One police officer tried to take my camera. A paramedic tried to wrestle Craig's camera away from him. Imagine if a camera crew from a local ABC, CBS or NBC station had pulled onto the scene, cameras rolling. Would they have gotten the same treatment?
We were treated as third-class citizens because we are "bloggers." The word is used derogatorily by many. Yes, we "blog" and therefore are "bloggers." But what does that mean, exactly, and why do some people not understand that blogging does not disqualify one from being a journalist.
Decades ago, journalists who wrote their stories for newspapers were called "newspapermen." The term is still correct (as would be "newspaperwoman"), but sounds antiquated to most Americans in 2008.
The definition of "newspaperman" is:
1. a person, esp. a man, who works for a newspaper, esp. as a reporter, editor, etc.
2. a person who owns or publishes a newspaper [source]
The term "newspaperman" is used to distinguish a reporter who works for a newspaper from one who works for another medium, such as a wire service, a magazine or an electronic news outlet. Today, however, most Americans lump them all together as "reporters" or "journalists."
Let's throw this into the mix: Craig Gernhardt is copublisher of a newspaper in Chicago. I am freelance reporter, whose writing and photographs have been published in a newspaper. So, are we "just bloggers?"
But what about "bloggers?"
Journalists are writers, but not all writers are journalists. Poets or novel writers, for example. It's a little more diverse with bloggers, though. Most bloggers are writers (some just post recipes or cat videos).
Quality of writing is irrelevant. There are plenty of lousy writers working for newspapers, magazines, and so on. Some bloggers simply post photos or artwork, so they are not really writers. However, there is such a thing as "photojournalism," and some of the bloggers who post photos qualify as such. Whether they are putting up photos of a major sports star, a national leader or their neighbor's dog for others to see, they are engaging in forms of photojournalism.
Many bloggers simply post an excerpt from other news sources, often with a brief introduction or editorial that they have written. The fact that this happens, again, does not disqualify them as journalists. Think of any newspaper, for example. The rely heavily on content from other sources such as wire services like Reuters, the Associated Press (AP), AFP, UPI and others. There are plenty of newspapers wherein over 80 percent of their content was not originated by their own writers. That fact, however, does not mean that the newspaper - including its publisher and editors - is not engaging in journalism.
There is even a legal aspect to all of this. Jodie Hopperton wrote a good article called "Bloggers as Journalists: what are the rules?" at
The Editors Weblog. Hopperton wrote:
"Are Web loggers journalists? The question touches on not just legal arguments, such as how elastic shield laws are or should be, but also includes cultural and political overtones. If, for instance, a blogger seeks to claim the privileges of being a journalist, should we expect him to follow the same general rules -- including contacting all sides to the story and verifying facts
independently? In the United States, courts have been grappling with this topic for a few years, with mixed results." Full Article…
Craig Gernhardt and I write more original content than the average blogger. (By average I mean everybody from kids who blog to Arianna Huffington.) We write about local events, meetings, police activity, politics and so on. This is the practice of journalism, regardless of the fact that our writing is made available to be read on web sites called "blogs."
What's a blog? It's simply a type of web site. "Blog" is an unfortunate contraction of the original term "web log." In other words, a "blog," or "web blog," is simply a log (or journal) that is made available to readers on the World Wide Web. A blog, then, is merely a medium. Newspapers are a medium, television is a medium. Radio, pamphlets, and so on.
Regardless of whether somebody writes "The President of France Wet His Pants" in a newspaper, a magazine, for a TV anchor to read aloud, or on a stone tablet does not change the message. While it's true that the medium, unfortunately, can influence how unsophisticated people interpret the message. The old saying that "the medium is the message" is true only as long as the persons interpreting the message cannot see the substance for the form.
Many newspaper journalists have their own blogs today. Is a newspaper reporter who writes a blog a "blogger?" Yes, of course s/he is. Does the fact that that reporter writes for a blog, in addition to writing for a newspaper, disqualify them from being called a "journalist?" No, of course not.
Note, however, that just as any fool can write a blog, any fool with enough money can start a newspaper or magazine.
For related reading about blogs and journalism,
try this Google search.
Our last regular posting here, on Chicago News Bench (CNB), will be on July 26, 2009. This blog was started as "Rogers Park Bench" in October, 2007 and by January, 2009 had achieved a Google page rank of 5, no small feat. We have over 52,000 inlinks from other web sites. Unlike one of the other local blogs, we have never screwed with our numbers to jump them way over a million. Unlike many other blogs, we never relied on, nor wanted, nutjob serial commenters for manicly repeated visits in order to artificially drive up our numbers. CNB quickly achieved a national readership, and to those of you who "got it," we extend our sincere thanks.
This blog started as a personal form of expression, an experiment, a desire to inform and to challenge the status quo. It became an obsession, however, and I am pulling back from that. The first step to a cure, as they say, is to admit you have a problem. I am returning, therefore, to the original purpose of this blog.
Oh, I'm not going away. There's still stuff to be done. For example:
Watch for 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore to run for the 18th Legislative District, which is being vacated by Julie Hamos. While this is not definite, confidential sources tell CNB that Moore is most interested in it. He might just do it; he's exploring that possibility now. While it's not definite that he will run, it is definite that he's strongly considering running for the 18th. That means, of course, that Moore undeniably wants out of his dead-end city council job. and doesn't give a rat's ass about serving the 49th Ward any longer. Not that he ever did, really. I predicted that Moore would not seek re-election to the city council in 2011 back on January 27, 2009 ("Ald. Joe Moore Will Not Seek Re-Election"), and it looks like I was right. Moore has certainly been raising campaign funds. Ah, but for which campaign? It may be more difficult that Moore thinks, no matter which campaign, after pissing of the SEIU last year over the Boys and Girls Club fiasco in Rogers Park, and after more recently yelling "F--- You and your family!" to a high ranking IVI-IPO official in a roomful of high ranking Democrat leaders, include Gov. Pat Quinn.
While July 26 will be our last day of regular posting, we'll still post now and then. It's just that there will no longer be a desire to post daily. Hell, I lost that desire weeks ago anyway. We've still got Helen Shiller to pick on. We've still got Todd Stroger to laugh at. The list is endless, of course: Mayor Daley and the Chicago City Clowncil, Pat Quinn and the morons that make up the majority of the Illinois legislature. The U.S. Congress, both houses. And on and on and on. It's endless really, and I suppose that's the point. One little blogger like me cannot hope to take it all on.
I was never content to devote the majority of this blog to bitching about pot holes and other petty, hyperlocal trivia. As I've said before, there's a whole world outside of Rogers Park, outside of Chicago, and an entire universe outside of your own experience and mind. What a shame to restrict any blog to pot holes. What a waste of time to spend hours maniacly following crazy comments to your own blog, and one well-known blogger does, baked on marijuana and spending hours more writing poorly constructed responses, some of which hypocritically rail against the very drug pushers that supply his own dope. What a cowardly thing it is, for some bloggers, to remain anonymous and hide in the shadows, afraid even to walk to a crime scene to take photos or actually cover the event, and expect people to ascribe any credibility to them. How sad indeed.
So I shall limit my participation in the blogosphere with mixed feelings. I've gotten to know many excellent bloggers, writers who truly care about the big picture while understanding but not obsessing about pot holes. To those people, a big salute. It's been an honor to be among your ranks. Carry on, and please check back here now and then. I'll be reading you.
The other day I had some 
election excitement subsided. But what about the drop in the frequency of the search term "God?" Can't explain that one easily, especially since there seems to be little correlation between the two search terms.
"God" is still more popular than "Republicans" and "Democrats," but here again we see that downward trend in the search term "God." I suspect that "God" will bounce up again soon as more and more people - including bloggers - start writing things like "only God can help us now" more often.
