I don't see why this has to be an either/or situation. Everyone's ox is being gored. Everyone wins. Everyone loses. It all depends where you had your tent pitched when the music started.

the internet in my view has become the worst thing for the news industry for just quality reasons. once the internet started getting popular every snot nose geek started there own website thinking they can report the news just as good as the new York times or some of these tech mags. but what has it done? all these false stories around the net, no proofreading like this and many other sites do but hey!, not a problem once some internet loaner points out the error in the message boards they can login and fix there error. imagine if they worked for a newspaper and notice it after the paper was printed. no way to correct those spelling and grammar mistakes

and now its going to get worse with the bloggers!!!

I read multiple sources, both "journalist" and "blogger," form an opinion based on a consensus and take it from there. Until a program can do that for me, that's how it's got to be.

Someday soon, Google will come up with a program to analyze the thousands of top news stories about a single topic every day, and regurgitate a summary based upon the frequency of certain words and topics, and that's what we'll all read.

I can't wait til that happens.

(does that make me a communist?)

Sort of a skewz.com for tech news? I can dig it.

But seriously, yeah -- with so many sources available, so many good writers who honorably hold differences in outlook, sensibility and opinion, a reasonable person's *got* to read multiple sources and apply some discernment. I worry much less about the failings of the old school or the new school (I've worked both; not only do they both have their problems, each has so much variety in quality and process that it's kind of silly to lump them together by school at all) than I do about readers who read ANYTHING uncritically, or assume that one publication is enough for anyone. Big world, people, big world. Drink it in.

I love that Betanews has a large and growing group of regulars, but I know that they read other pubs too, and that's as it should be. As long as we're in the mix and giving 'em good stuff, we're happy -- and we're doing our job right!

I'm just shaking my head at Elgan's pity-party. So the big print mags don't control the message any more. So any guy with a keyboard can become a "blogger" nowadays. Well, guess what - that's called market democracy. The best talent will draw readers and the rest will fade into obscurity. So Computerworld can't charge as much for ads because even small hardware and software vendors can get the word out via the internet. What a tragedy! I'm glad this guy writes for some blogs, because that's the future and print is the past. I for one do not mourn the fallen gatekeepers of the media. They manipulated entire industries for way too long and charged dearly for the chance to play in their sandbox. Requiring deep pockets, they like to argue, helps keep out the riff-raff. I laugh at that heartily. Betanews and a plethora of new media publishers have found a better way, and I hope their rightfully profiting from it. We need the freedom of the internet now more than ever. If not for the the web we'd never even hear about great free programs like Spyware Terminator - everyone would be running some junk from Mccafe. If not for the 'net, almost nobody would even know about the criminal activities of the Obama administration since the major media are running interference for the White House. Print media had a long and fantastic run, and its not going to completely die out for decades, if ever. But its not going to dominate the message anymore, and that's a good thing. Now the same thing just needs to happen to broadcast media.

Both have legitimate reasons why the other is better, but throwing in someone's age and then saying that it's not important is an unnecessary zinger. Let the readers decide by.. you know...reading their preferred media.

Responding to a thoughtful commentary is called discourse and it's a dis(course) best served civil. Keep it clean boys, keep it clean.

Too often people get caught up in these sorts of brouhahas. Can't we just agree that they are different animals and move on? Comparing bloggers to journalists is like complaining that the sports page doesn't have enough in depth reporting on stock prices. Whether you write for a living or write because you enjoy spouting off your opinion shouldn't really matter.