Mainstream-Medien sehen sich durch Blogger bedrängt

--- Die New York Times berichtet über zunehmende und an Beachtung gewinnende "Blogger-Kampagnen", durch die sich die Mainstream-Medien unter Druck gesetzt sehen: "The traditional players, including the press, have lost some of the control or exclusive control they used to have," said Jay Rosen, chairman of the journalism department at New York University, who keeps his own Web log, or blog. But, he added, "I think there's a campaign under way to totally politicize journalism and totally politicize press criticism." "It's really an attack, not just on the liberal media or press bias--it's an attack on professionalism itself; on the idea that there could be disinterested reporters," he said. ... the most personal critiques originate among the political blogs--especially from the left--run by individuals who use news media reports for their often heated discussions. Many sites urge visitors to personally call reporters and news organizations and send e-mail messages, which can number in the hundreds daily. "Most of us now realize that this is a constant conversation, and I think that largely, that part of it is good," said Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek. "Some of the stuff includes very personal and nasty things about people--they go after people's physical characteristics, they'll say somebody's ugly--and you just have to ignore that." Still, he said, "I would be lying if I didn't say it could be hurtful." A recent posting on Daily Kos, a liberal Web site visited by more than 500,000 people daily, according to blog rankings posted on a site called The Truth Laid Bear, declared that Fineman "loves the GOP and hates gays, just like all of the press." It went on to call him "wimpy," a "slime" and worse. ... NBC anchor Tom Brokaw recently likened the tone of the Internet coverage of the CBS National Guard report, presented by the anchor Dan Rather, to a "political jihad." In an interview last week, Brokaw said CBS News had clearly made mistakes. But, he said, "I think there were people just lying in the Internet bushes, waiting to strike, and I think that particular episode gave them a big opportunity."

Nicht ganz leicht eben, mit den neuen selbsternannten Media-Watchdogs umzugehen. Und inwiefern Blogger Kampagnen gegen einzelne Medien oder Personen betreiben sollten, muss sicherlich auch noch diskutiert werden. Der Spindoktor wird seine "Kampagne" gegen Schily noch einmal überdenken. Nicht unerwähnt werden soll in diesem Zusammenhang aber, dass Datenschützer seit gestern nach dem Bundesinnenminister aufgrund seiner Biometrieverliebtheit "fahnden".