A journalism teacher at Northwestern University is desperately concerned about the growth of blogging in the USA:

“The public is finding it more difficult than ever to distinguish between legitimate news and unverified drivel. The problem is that most news consumers don’t realize that mainstream media reporters work within strict policies and guidelines that these other outlets don’t require.”

Let’s have a little quiz. When he says, “The public is finding it more difficult than ever to distinguish between legitimate news and unverified drivel,” this means which of the following:

(a) I am getting lots of phone calls from worried parents, who are concerned that their teenagers might be believing what they read in so-called weblogs, or ‘blogs’.

(b) Polls show that the majority of people believe there is too much blogging, and not enough solid respectable Cronkitey journalism on the Interwebs.

(c)Legitimate news outlets have become the target of allegations of bias, despite their self-evident neutrality and calm equanimity, when those allegations should instead target what is euphemistically called the ‘new media’ of the right.

(d) Dirty filthy peasants! How dare they! Do they not see this crown upon my head? Fools!

And when he says, “mainstream media reporters work within strict policies and guidelines that [blogs] don’t require,” he means which of the following:

(a) mainstream media reporters have editors to make sure that names and places are spelled correctly, and that obvious mathematical errors are corrected prior to publication.

(b) mainstream media reporters are professionals, held to professional standards of balance and accountability, who would never let a political or ideological slant affect their work.

(c) mainstream media reporters vigorously fact-check every aspect of their work, and would never allow even the appearance of impropriety or bias.

(d) Bloggers are dirty filthy peasants! Why, some of them probably voted for Bush! That is, if they could drag themselves off their moonshine-addled backsides and stop shtupping their sisters for 10 minutes!

I’m a bit leery of the whole “blogs vs. MSM” stuff myself, but occasionally someone will stick their big dumb head out of the gopher hole, and then I think it’s everyone’s responsibility to smash it with a big mallet until it goes away. Don’t you?