What's This Blog About? An Explanation for New Readers and Old
Erik Swenson, the executive director of the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee, told his members about Sphere in an e-mail this morning, which I hope will bring some new readers to the site. If so, welcome -- scroll around, click around, bookmark the page, and come back tomorrow.
The possibility of new readers, combined with a "discussion" I had via e-mail the other day with a person who was less than happy with something I had written, makes me think this is a good time to explain what it is I think I'm doing here:
My e-mail correspondent asked this question:
Is a blog an editorial page and has the editor done his/her
homework when forming opinions? Or is a blog a news source where opinions are left at the door and the story is presented on a factual basis? Either is OK as long as it is presented as intended and the homework is done.
Here's what I said, with a couple of slight changes to protect the identity of my unhappy reader:
I think of my blog as being many things, but when I’m at my most high-minded I think of it as being the place where people in the Long Island Sound “community” can go to find out what’s happening beyond the borders of their own towns. And I think of it as having a role in helping form the community and hold it together. One of the things I argued in my book is that the Sound’s problems are tied to the fact that it really has no strong constituency. Maybe I can help that constituency grow.
As for what I put on it, it’s really whatever I learn that interests me and that I think might interest others. It’s not a newspaper. I do a tiny amount of original reporting; and I pass on and comment on what others write. ... I mean it to be fun, first of all for me and then for readers. If it’s not, readers won’t read it and I’ll stop doing it.
Although I have a point of view, I’m as independent as I can be and I’m no more loyal to ... any newspaper than I am to [a local government] or EPA or Save the Sound or Audubon, although I tend to think well of at least some of those.
My correspondent was unhappy that I linked to newspaper articles without confirming their accuracy. I responded that I couldn't possibly fact check the 10 or so newspapers that I look at every morning but that if someone who is quoted in an article or has first-hand information about the subject of an article wants to point out inaccuracies, I'd be glad to consider them and write about them. The beauty of a blog is that you can respond and make changes and corrections quickly.
What I didn't say is that a fair number of the posts on Sphere start as tips or information that people e-mail me. I love to get stories that way and I encourage anyone to do so. My address is in the sidebar to the right. Keep in touch.
The possibility of new readers, combined with a "discussion" I had via e-mail the other day with a person who was less than happy with something I had written, makes me think this is a good time to explain what it is I think I'm doing here:
My e-mail correspondent asked this question:
Is a blog an editorial page and has the editor done his/her
homework when forming opinions? Or is a blog a news source where opinions are left at the door and the story is presented on a factual basis? Either is OK as long as it is presented as intended and the homework is done.
Here's what I said, with a couple of slight changes to protect the identity of my unhappy reader:
I think of my blog as being many things, but when I’m at my most high-minded I think of it as being the place where people in the Long Island Sound “community” can go to find out what’s happening beyond the borders of their own towns. And I think of it as having a role in helping form the community and hold it together. One of the things I argued in my book is that the Sound’s problems are tied to the fact that it really has no strong constituency. Maybe I can help that constituency grow.
As for what I put on it, it’s really whatever I learn that interests me and that I think might interest others. It’s not a newspaper. I do a tiny amount of original reporting; and I pass on and comment on what others write. ... I mean it to be fun, first of all for me and then for readers. If it’s not, readers won’t read it and I’ll stop doing it.
Although I have a point of view, I’m as independent as I can be and I’m no more loyal to ... any newspaper than I am to [a local government] or EPA or Save the Sound or Audubon, although I tend to think well of at least some of those.
My correspondent was unhappy that I linked to newspaper articles without confirming their accuracy. I responded that I couldn't possibly fact check the 10 or so newspapers that I look at every morning but that if someone who is quoted in an article or has first-hand information about the subject of an article wants to point out inaccuracies, I'd be glad to consider them and write about them. The beauty of a blog is that you can respond and make changes and corrections quickly.
What I didn't say is that a fair number of the posts on Sphere start as tips or information that people e-mail me. I love to get stories that way and I encourage anyone to do so. My address is in the sidebar to the right. Keep in touch.
posted by Tom Andersen at 7:52 AM
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