The Mainstream Media on Blogs

I had an interesting exchange with a local newspaper editor about blogs today. I answered his email out loud, NO NO, I said, newspaper reporters are NOT the ones who should write blogs.

"Blogs are something else. Some are erudite and accurate. So many are narcissistic drivel. I think our site should be involved, in some way, with blogs, if for no other reason than that they can be one point of entry to readers who prefer to hop in through the portal of one writer's musings.

But who should write them, and what should they muse about? Shouldn't they be people who work for the newspaper? Readers will rightly infer that their words, flowing amid all the news, are part of the same fountain.

I think poorly done blogs, of the sort I see excerpted from masslive, are ridiculous. They say nothing, most of the time. A universe of boring kids raising their hands in social studies class, not having done the reading, and talking just to hear themselves.