Journalism, Blogging, and David Martin in the Middle

I am frequently amused by bloggers who get full of themselves and start to think of themselves as journalists. (I won't link to any examples - my most frequent critic [the one I live with] says I've been too mean lately.) Simply stated, journalism is similar to much of blogging in that it normally consists of timely writing on current events. But journalism has the added burden of carefully checking facts and getting reliable and verifiable sources, whereas bloggers can, and do, let a story fly based on an email or a suspicion. It's a huge difference, and an important one - I wrote about it here when Dan Margolies of the Star called me to try to find sources on a (true) story I had published based upon an email and a suspicion. We both wound up writing about the same thing, but I did it as a blogger and he did it as a journalist (only after he had confirmation of the facts). Journalists don't publish stories based on rumors and conjecture.

That is, unless you are David Martin of the Pitch. You see, David seems a little worked up that the Wall Street Journal (a source of real journalism, at least until Murdoch gains control) wrote about a small demonstration of Minutemen outside Beth Gottstein's place. David missed the story when it happened (even though he claims he's been "reading about" the Minutemen since someone else at the Pitch wrote about them), and now, egg all over his face, he wants to get to the bottom of this tiny facet of the whole Semler story.

Humorously, he seems surprised that Beth didn't want to talk to him when he shows up, flash photographer in tow, and insists on grilling Gottstein about the demonstration outside a meeting. Ambush journalism has its place, but not when the topic is a 5 week old demonstration consisting of a few Minutemen waving signs outside a plaza condo. In that context, it's just another form of harassment, and Beth treated the jerk like a jerk. Good job, Beth. Too bad you didn't have some mace for him.

Gottstein showed a lot more class than she needed to, and called him up to give him the interview he wanted. In it, he accuses her of making up the demonstration, and demands to know where the Wall Street Journal got its story. Beth, having moved past this 5 week old story, refuses to play his game, and rebuffs his attempts to stir up another fight between herself and the Minutemen crazies. She, like everyone else, knows that if she gives him a quote about the demonstration, he'll use it to provoke another one, and nobody except a failing "journalist" would benefit from that.

In other words, David Martin just got outscooped by the Wall Street Journal and outsmarted by Beth Gottstein. It's been a bad week, and he's feeling fussy about it. He's forced a photographer to invest time in this fool's errand, and he has no story. People must be kind of chuckling at him around the office.

Instead of being a journalist and sticking to the verified facts, David Martin attacks. He actually publishes an article based on his unverified suspicion that the demonstration didn't happen. Angry that real journalists found a facet of the story that he had totally missed, he assumes it must be false, because he would have known about it if it had happened.

What's his best piece of evidence? That someone with the Minutemen denies that he knew about it. Note - nothing in Martin's article says the Minutemen denied it happened, but a person who was not tied to the demonstration denies that his nutcase organization harassed a city councilperson. There's a shocker! That's enough to run the presses for David Martin, though.

Oh, there's one more bit of evidence, but it contradicts Martin's position. The Minutemen were gathering for a protest in Topeka later that day, so the thought that they decided to raise two kinds of hell on their trip, when they already had their signs painted, makes a fair amount of sense.

Laughably, Martin ends his article with an accusation that Gottstein is not telling the truth, and that she is stirring things up by embellishing the truth to make herself a victim.

David Martin, you have no facts. All you have is a suspicion, and a large dose of frustration. A blogger might run with that, but a journalist most definitely would not. Talk to some of the journalists in your office, and maybe they'll take the time to explain the difference. They pay attention to the difference, and publish their non-journalism on their blog, where it belongs, instead of in print. On the other hand, they might refuse to talk to you, just like Beth Gottstein did, because you cannot be trusted to act like a journalist.