Journalist recklessly slanders bloggers as reckless

Bill Hobbs had this op-ed from the Baltimore Sun by journalism professor, Christopher Hanson. It would be hard to find something more replete with stereotyping, distortion, and outright fabrication.

The Eason Jordan affair was driven by the work of about a dozen influential bloggers, none of whom even remotely resembles the ridiculous caricature portrayed by this fool. Not a single one of these bloggers "want to have big-league journalistic impact but to avoid ethical standards they apply so vigorously to mainstream reporters."

A quality journalist would have identified who he was talking about. A quality journalist would have tried to interview some of the bloggers or at least some people familiar with their work. I'm sure that Glenn Reynolds, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, or the Power Line guys would have been happy to respond to any inquiries he would have directed to them. A quality journalist would have told the truth about all of Eason Jordan's statements and the statements from Barney Frank and Senator Dodd expressing their shock over those made at Davos. A quality journalist would have refrained from lumping all bloggers into a single category. A quality journalist would have refrained from gratuitous libel.

Too bad that Professor Hanson wasn't able to reach the standard of quality journalism (or even hack journalism). I wonder if he can teach any better than he writes.