Is blogging journalism?

Here’s a story we’ve had pointed out to us by several readers, thinking that Slugger may have been the target. But we’re fairly sure that Slugger is not the blogger that Anderstonstown News columnist Squinter had in mind:

“The National Union of Journalists thinks it’s time that journalists were subjected to regulation in the same way that lawyers and accountants are.

As it stands, anybody at all can call themselves a journalist.
Squinter, who’s been covering community centres and irish dancing festivals for close on 20 years for the right to put the word hack on his passport, had to laugh when watching the tv the other night to see one notorious internet blogger described in a caption as “commentator and journalist”.

(What’s a blogger? Well, anyone who keeps their own “web-log” is a blogger and what they do is make totally unsubstantiated and deeply libellous claims about people they don’t like and invite their friends to write in doing the same. And if the object of their ire is republicans, then they’ll be writing columns and doing tv interviews quicker than you can say “Log on!”)”

For a wider view of what bloggers do, try this cheat sheet from Silicon.com.

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