April 11, 2006 — Mark Jurkowitz, media critic for the Boston Phoenix, discussed how bloggers impacted the celebrity status of Jill Carroll at the Shorenstein Center’s brown-bag lunch.
Jurkowitz suggested that the initial response of many bloggers to the Christian Science Monitor reporter’s condemnation of the U.S. military presence in Iraq — remarks Carroll made on videotape just after her release — was the first significant opportunity the blog world had had to exercise serious self-criticism. Many bloggers had reacted by prematurely attacking Carroll, only to learn later that her remarks had been made under duress.
Bloggers often too easily yield to what Jurkowitz called “the pull of immediacy,” rushing to publish before taking the time to ask questions or vet the quality of the information they’re sending out.
Political bloggers can be guilty of the same “journalistic malpractice” they accuse mainstream journalists of, Jurkowitz pointed out.
