{"id":518,"date":"2007-07-23T12:15:15","date_gmt":"2007-07-23T19:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=518"},"modified":"2007-12-08T22:12:14","modified_gmt":"2007-12-09T05:00:14","slug":"los-angeles-times-asleep-at-the-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=518","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Times Dust-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/opinion\/la-op-dustup23jul23,0,7322888.story?coll=la-promo-opinion\">Here&#8217;s day one of our debate<\/a>. &quot;What is the difference between news and gossip? Is the distinction changing? All this week, blogger Luke Ford and KTLA reporter Eric Spillman debate ethics, credibility and high-profile snafus in the changing media environment.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Eric Spillman makes a traditional and gentlemanly argument about the need for credible journalism. I respond by falling on my sword and whining.<\/p>\n<p>Khunrum writes: &quot;Many words have been written concerning the mayor banging the cutie Hispanic  reporter. Evidently Luke was one of the first to catch him with his trousers  down. But at the end of the day who cares&nbsp;if the guy is double dipping?. It&#8217;s a  great gossip story but there are more important issues out there. If a blogger  uncovers a planned terrorist attack instead of uncovering the mayor in bed with  some honey, well then, you&nbsp;got something.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I would cut back (or better yet cut out) the self deprecating humor. As a fellow  Tom Fool I know where you&#8217;re coming from. However your opponent is a serious sort and wants to score points. Do battle with him on his level. Save the funny stuff for your columns. At least that&#8217;s what I think.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Fred emails:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p> L&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>I would not fall on my sword so quickly and  extravagently.  After all, these guys want some kind  of dueling debate (Hannity v. Colmes, as it were).  This is like watching a pro wrestling match where one  of the wrestlers surrenders four seconds into the  match, before the crowd gets to see the first sleeper  hold or the first back drop.<\/p>\n<p>I would argue that bloggers are not bound by the  economic needs that journalists face when they fear to  offend advertisers.  When a big story breaks, they  need not stick to rules that sometimes get in the way.  Sure, this sometimes means that they get a story  wrong.  But that happens a fairly low percentage of  the time, and if more of the truth gets out, humanity  is served well.<\/p>\n<p>Luke, it may be true that you get some of your best  material while in the horizontal position, but so does  James Bond.  You don&#8217;t see him refusing to follow a  lead just because of the manner in which the truth is  exposed, do you?<\/p>\n<p>Chaim, even if Luke is sometimes inaccurate, do you  immediately completely dismiss his blog?  I think not.  I would react by saying, &quot;this is an interesting  story.  Let&#8217;s see if it pans out.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Rum, for whatever reason, the public thinks that  double dipping is big news.  If they didn&#8217;t, Clinton  would not have to face an impeachment hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Bloggers provide the public with a new avenue for  finding out truth.  They find it out quickly and  economically.  God Bless America!  A new day is  dawning in the U.S.  You haven&#8217;t seen nothin&#8217; yet!  Remember the Alamo!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><!--adsense--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s day one of our debate. &quot;What is the difference between news and gossip? Is the distinction changing? All this week, blogger Luke Ford and KTLA reporter Eric Spillman debate ethics, credibility and high-profile snafus in the changing media environment.&quot; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=518\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}