What Bloggers Do

As Jeralyn notes at TalkLeft, the NYT has a piece on blogs and newspapers. The piece, like the MSM in general, doesn't exactly have a coherent point of view on blogs. The NYT piece seems to imply there's a "newspaper war" going on. What that war is I don't know.

Newspapers are having a lot of financial problems. Our local Union News/Sunday Republican is rumored to be planning major layoffs. The New York Times Corporation has already laid off 500 workers. I read from two or three papers a day (NYT, Union News, WaPo), but I don't buy any of them; they are all on-line. I start with the NYT and Union News (www.masslive.com), then I move on to TalkLeft, which somewhere between a blog and a newspaper. The following quote defining the role of bloggers can be found on TalkLeft, but originates with Jane at Firedogake:

"...bloggers serve the function of analysts. Or re-analyzers, more aptly, who attempt to contextualize as they sort through available data and look for patterns, inconsistencies and greater truths.

....From our standpoint we're trying to come up with new ideas and theories as we try to sort through the available information and expose the systemic bias from which it comes. We're not afraid to be wrong in our speculations, nor are we afraid to interact with people who like to think along side us."