Erika, so enjoyed reading your blog. Funny. Hey, and happy birthday. Sorry we didn't get a chance to speak. I look forward to reading you on here again!

Also, excellent picture!

Signed: Not taking this too SERIOUSLY

Serious(ish) question and not trying to be snarky but are you allowed to start a sentence with the word "and" ? If we did that in school we always got our knuckles rapped.

Waaaa! You poor poor serious journalist you.....

Give me a break with your self-righteous "I'm a real writer essay and the rest of you are wanna be writers clogging up the world with your empty thoughts!"

As a professional (yes, paid) writer - I blog and enjoy reading some of the stuff other's have posted out there.

Today's journalists are just paid "media hoes" whose opinions sway whichever way the money pushes it whereas bloggers have nothing to lose in sharing their "unpurchased" perspectives.

How's that for syntax?

it's certainly true that blogging has democratized the airwaves, as it were. And it certainly has allowed millions of people to express themselves -- like right here on this topic of blogging! But I do agree that there is a proliferation of blogginess where everyone and her sister now believes they MUST have their own blog and thinks that everyone else is interested in their most intimate and too often mundane thoughts ("Hey I went out drinking last night and I burped...") But, then again, it also allows people to air provocative ideas that they otherwise may not have been able to get printed in the limited space of the editorial pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post (and as Maureen Dowd pointed out not too long ago, it's typically women who have been omitted from these pages). So it's a mixed bag....more opinions, less quality. You decide.

Here is yet another journalists whining about the unwashed masses of the blogosphere while blogging. Ironic no?

You are upset that the profit model of your industry is failing due to changing tastes and the emergence of the Internet as a cheap platform. Print is a dying medium, especially the newspaper business. You will need to find a way to adapt or be pwnd.

There were always be a need for professional journalists. Bloggers would not be able to exist without that primary source. We need you. But there will need to be a new model whereby you earn your living. The LAT is starting to figure it out. There needs to be a mix of old style reporting and reporters turning into bloggers. Or a totally separate system that creates a community to fund some great investigatory journaliss.

If you don't like the material that others are producing, then don't read it or watch it. Bytes are free, just like you are to read what you choose. Don't discourage freedom of expression. Don't hate your readers, engage us. That is what blogging is all about, a dialogue. Your readers are smarter than you and will improve what you do, as Joe Klein is finding out.

juls

PS. Time for another blogging ethics conference! (end atrios)

I blog, I write, and I once was an editor for a local underground magazine, and then I blog some more. I have this horrible feeling that you really have no clue about what blogging has done for so many people that had no self confidence.

Not that it matters in your world...all you care about is money, not that I can blame you, we all need money to live, but you are really missing the boat. If you feel offended or any other professional journalist feels threatened by blogging, then they just aren't doing their jobs well enough as far as I see it. Besides, in this day in age, what newspaper, magazine, or major news channel hasn't been corrupted and swayed in the direction of one maniacal political group or another? News isn't what it used to be, it isn't for the most part journalism, so much as just rewritting press releases given to you by said government agencies. I mean did Fox news network tell us that President Dubya was wearing a wire? No, that came from the astute bloggers who were not only watching that stupid idiot talk, but reporting on what they saw with their own eyes, you know, what real reporters used to do.

The new agencies should have known that when they started to call Geraldo a serious journalist, journalism did not exist as we know it any longer. He was a talk show host...and not a very good one.

You feel honored that you were asked to be a "guestbian", I feel ripped off that you were asked to be one, you aren't even gay as you said yourself, or am I misreading some hidden joke?

U

P.S. I just did a Google search, you aren't even a real journalist, you write reviews...I'm sorry did one to many bloggers write about the latest movie or book you are to review? Too bad...

I've actually thought about this subject a lot. In fact, this the first site that I have ever blogged on. I lost my bloginity here. On the one hand, I think bloggers are indicative of the instant gratification culture in which we live. People want their (fill in the blank) now, damnit! I also think that many bloggers are seeking attention. Nobody in their personal or professional lives will listed to them, so maybe if they throw it out into the internet universe they'll find an audience. On the other hand, I think blogging connects people. Our lives have become so isolated. We don't talk, we email, we don't go to the post office to buy stamps, we order them online, we don't go out to the mall or the grocery store, we get our goods delivered (after ordering them online). You know what I mean. So, if blogging offers us an opportunity to find that human connection that we all desire then I guess it's not so bad. I'm trying to keep my mind open. Blogging is kind of like Global Warming. We created it, so we have to live with it. It's not going away.

I like your blog, Erika. :-)