LA TIMES' DAVID SHAW'S IGNORANCE OF BLOGGERS

Amusing piece by Slate's Jack Shafer on David Shaw's recent rant against bloggers. Goes to show there is still much ignorance about blogs and the world of blogging even among the well-read.

Don't Fear the Blogger
Will somebody please help the Los Angeles Times' David Shaw get a grip?

By Jack Shafer
Monday, March 28, 2005

In yesterday's (March 27) Los Angeles Times, media reporter and critic David Shaw demonstrates Oscar Wilde's maxim that modern journalism is important—if only because it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

Giving every indication that he's read a lot of stories about bloggers but not that many actual blogs, Shaw disparages the form as the error-filled rants of amateurs in his piece, "Do Bloggers Deserve Basic Journalistic Protections?" It's a "solipsistic, self-aggrandizing journalist-wannabe genre," Shaw writes. (full article)