Bloggers Untrustworthy, Threatening to MSM, Journalist Panel Concludes

Stop the presses!

After Rathergate, the New Republic's Scott Thomas Beauchamp scandal, the protracted coverup of the John Edwards affair story, the ongoing refusal to challenge Barack Obama's claim that terrorist William Ayers was just "some guy" in his neighborhood, and Matt Drudge's history-changing decision to break the Monica Lewinsky story after mainstream media outlets refused to report it, it's clear that bloggers, many of whom spend their time fact-checking stories disseminated by the mainstream media, represent a threat to the mainstream media.

That's the shocking conclusion of a panel of journalists at a National Press Club forum at Johnson & Wales University.

"I think citizen journalism is grossly overrated," says Robert Whitcomb, the Providence Journal's editorial page editor. "It's great for parts of the media to save money. But as rigorous journalism for informing the public, much of it stinks; it's terrible. Many of the citizen journalists have large axes to grind."

And MSM journalists don't?