The comments on
this post ("Hello!") to the
Times-Union's East Greenbush blog include a discussion about starting a Rensselaer blog on the
T-U site. Anyone interested in participating should probably e-mail the editor, Michael Huber.
However, I can't agree with the commenter that adding a volunteer blog means the "fourth estate" is alive and well - citizen blogging is not reporting. The residents of the City of Rensselaer need:
- 1) Government transparency (budgets, agendas, and minutes available online)
- 2) Consistent political journalism (reporters attending the meetings regularly and telling the ongoing stories)
A blog should not be expected to substitute for either of those things - it should just fill in the gaps. I can only hope that if this happens, it's approached with a constructive point of view by the bloggers (and commenters), and serves to encourage the professional journalists to get beyond the fires and arrests to tell more important stories.
Posts
1 comment:
Hear, hear. It's hard to believe we have city-wide races taking place in a week. Finding info on these races beyond general banalities is impossible. Where are the debates, articles in the local media, and so forth? Maybe we should all log-on to the city website and register our frustration -- oh, that's right, there is no Rensselaer website!
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