I thought you'd enjoy these observations on the 'mindset and mentality' of the MSM from Michael Arrington whose blogs are TechCrunch and CrunchNotes.
Last weekend he attended the Online News Association Conference in Wash DC and said it was a gross mistake.
Some excerpts:
I am routinely harangued by mainstream media as well, who neither understand blogging or care to. The most common attack is that bloggers are not and never will be objective in their writing for one reason or another. I assumed giving a little bit of criticism back would spark debate, not ostracism. But I found that mainstream media is not comfortable being questioned. I assume that's because they've insulated themselves from feedback, and therefore haven't grown a thick skin.
I also made some points about journalism in general after a few defensive flurries were sent my way. First, that most mainstream media isn't interesting to me because they report news so late. By the time something hits the New York Times, it's usually at least a day old in the blogosphere. Second, I was discouraged by the fact that there is no discussion in mainstream media. Publications never cite their competition, and readers cannot say what they think (as they can with blog comments). And third, I encouraged journalists who were stuck in the big media machine, with their career going nowhere, to consider blogging as an alternative (I was also going to say that I was hiring, and for people to contact me, but I never was able to say that). I also called out the New York Times in particular - their recent launch of an offline new reader showed that they don't get what consumers really want, I said. And I also said that many of the fluff pieces in the Times technology section must either be generated from back scratching, or lack of understanding of the product.
None of this went over well at all.
It's the first time I addressed "real" journalists head on, and all I saw was fear, loathing and disdain.
Entire post
http://www.crunchnotes.com/...