Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Letter to the Editors at Reuters: Libby Verdict Coverage

The introductory piece to the Ask... story at http://blogs.reuters.com/category/from-reuterscom/ask/?src=030707_1023_DOUBLEFEATURE_more_top_news (UPDATE: now archived) provides an astonishing and unbalanced misrepresentation of what has been happening in the blogs around the Scooter Libby trial. It verges on the irresponsible.

Perhaps the biggest blog story is that there was a team of bloggers from firedoglake.com who were press accredited and provided continuous updates. They have been complimented by colleagues from the press who covered the trial - James Gordon Meeks of the New York Daily Post said they were the "stars" on C-SPAN.

Yet the introductory piece mentions two moderate blogs (Kevin Drum and truthdig) and the Democratic party website (which is not a blog at all), and six right-wing blogs. None of these were in the press room at the trial.

Your writers do not mention any of the following:
How can you so overrepresent the right wing in a political story? How can you ignore the major players, who have more than just snark and empty commentary to offer? Is this what Reuters thinks the blogs are?

Marcy Wheeler of the Next Hurrah broke stories on this. If all that your staff reads is GOPBloggers, Redstate, Powerline, Balloon Juice, Political Pit Bull and Andrew Sullivan, then they are woefully underinformed, and being fed third-hand information from pre-digested Republican Party talking points.

You should be ashamed of the limited world view your staff writers put on display.

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