Marc Fisher, I Am Sad For You
After today’s fun being the voice of MBDC on WashPost radio I was a little pissed off. Marc Fisher spent the whole time trying to bash blogging as not journalism, as time wasting frivolity.
And while I’ve never claimed blogging to be journalism, or myself a real journalist, I was annoyed with his constant degradation of a medium I love.
Then, I realized what happened. It was Marc Fisher expressing the frustrations of an entire industry in precipitous decline. Where journeymen such as Marc being laid off or bought out, made contract workers when they should be captains of their profession.
Now Marc Fisher has to blog himself, has to host a radio show, has to produce much more content at similar or less pay because eyeballs are leaving the top down, one-way, elitist main stream media and moving to this democratic, grassroots, and highly individualized medium.
So it’s a lion in winter, roaring in pain, as his kingdom shrinks around him. And so I am not mad any more.
Marc Fisher, I am sad for you.
Its hard being an old dog, one who has trouble hunting with the new, young, energetic pack. A pack that can form in seconds, for free, and yet have a voice that can take down Dan Rather as a hobby.
Good luck in this shifting business Marc. Really, I wish you well. Tomorrow it may be me who has to defend my job, but unlike you, I’ll do it with grace and style. I’ll not ambush the Young Turks like you did. I’ll call them up and figure out how to link up. Even if one of them still doesn’t know the difference between “loose” and “lose”.
For what it’s worth, I listened to the broadcast and didn’t think Marc Fisher was bashing blogging.
I agree with MBFan. I didn’t hear bashing either.
We should hopefully have the audio today or Friday for everyone to hear. I’ve had problems before with the tone at WPR being very anti-blog, specifically calling most all of them cat-bloggers and such. It’s really aggravating, quite honestly.
Apparently, Marc didn’t think he was bashing us either (we’ve traded emails).
Maybe I was just a little sensitive to the “you’re not a journalist” angle he kept stressing, or his comment that blogging is a time waster.
Either way, I was disappointed that we didn’t have a more relaxed discussion about Metroblogging DC or blogging in general.
We’re not journalism, but we’re also not a time waste (or at least I hope I’m not!). We’re the virtual water cooler – a time honored tradition in every workplace.
Now, leave a comment and get back to work!
I think that some of it may come from the fact that the hosts were trying to keep it so basic, for (the two) people that have never heard of blogging. My impression was that that was the reason he was highlighting that it was different from traditional journalistic outlets. Anyway, whether or not those of you that actually blog think he was bashing blogging, I can reassure you that those of us who don’t probably didn’t come away with the same impression.
I’m glad that we had the chance to “go on the air” and discuss what we do with an audience that may not be familiar with us.
I agree that there wasn’t any “bashing” out right – but there was definately a tone to some of the questions.
I maintain that “old” and “new” media have a lot to offer each other. Wayan’s example of the truck parking in front of CVS leading to a City Paper investigative article – and my comments about how we often write about what interests us in the news, but with our own interpretation – demonstrate this.
While traditional journalists benefit from getting paid to write as a full-time career – I think writing for MBDC gives us the benefit of direct, and often very involved, feedback from our audience.
Plus, where on the Washington Post website can you suggest a story?