Who gets to publish, who checks the facts, and who answers when information goes wrong? Those questions run through this selection of PunditGuy posts from the early blog era.
These six entries, originally published in 2005 and 2006, follow three connected debates: how television news made room for bloggers, how Wikipedia handled questions of credibility, and how writers and institutions were held accountable. Together they offer a focused route through the archive, with commentary, follow-ups, and the author’s changing assessment of an unfolding story.
A historical reading guide. The original posts retain their dates, quotations, opinions, and predictions. This collection adds context and a suggested reading order; it preserves the original articles as they were written.
Start here: Read CNN & Bloggers — Getting Cozy?, then the two Wikipedia entries below, and finish with Cutting Journalistic Corners. That sequence moves from the promise of online publishing to the responsibilities that come with it.
Newsrooms meet the blogosphere
CNN & Bloggers — Getting Cozy?
CNN’s attention to blogs prompts a longer argument about credibility, sourcing, and the boundary between professional reporting and citizen journalism. A useful starting point for the collection because it sets out both the opportunity and the author’s skepticism about how established news organizations would treat bloggers.
CBS News Blog — “Public Eye”
A response to the planned launch of a CBS News blog, asking whether greater openness about editorial decisions could lead to a more productive relationship with citizen journalists. Read it alongside the CNN post for two contemporary views of newsrooms entering the blog conversation.
Wikipedia and the problem of trust
Taking the Wiki Out of Wikipedia
The podcasting-history and John Seigenthaler controversies become the starting point for an argument about open editing and oversight. The post includes a prediction about Wikipedia’s future, preserved here as a view from 2005. Its value in this collection is the question it raises about the trade-offs between openness, speed, and accuracy.
Wikipedia Prankster Unveiled
The follow-up returns to the Seigenthaler entry after the person responsible for the false information came forward. Read the two Wikipedia posts together to follow the shift from concern about an editing system to the question of individual accountability.
Attribution, access, and accountability
Cutting Journalistic Corners
An account of a newspaper reporter’s dismissal leads into commentary on borrowing from online sources without proper attribution. It connects the Wikipedia discussion to a broader issue: professional writers also have responsibilities when using freely available material.
Biased Blocking?
An initial concern about website filtering develops through reader responses and updates. The later assessment points toward local administrators’ choices rather than an established, built-in bias in the software. This is worth reading in full because the updates materially change the story’s emphasis.
Keep exploring
For more writing from this period, browse 2005 and 2006, or use the complete month-by-month archive. Each original post opens as a separate article, with its own publication date and discussion.