Note to Right-Wing Noise Machine: Don't Quit Your Day Job

Pundits and bloggers with little or no journalistic background have to be careful when they try to get into reporting. It's one thing to critique a story for it's facts or inferences, but to try and play reporter yourself (especially without having the experience and credentials) is another kettle of fish.

The recent attacks on children who have been doing SCHIP ads are a perfect example. Instead of inviting a debate on the merits of the program, or even proposing a compromise, it's opponents have decided to use the tried-and-true tactic of assaulting (and in some cases, stalking) the messenger. After all: now that they're political, they're fair game.

But as Eric Boehlert of Media Matters puts it:

The irony, of course, is that radical-right bloggers despise journalists and claim they're dishonest, biased, and even treasonous. But when the bloggers try to become journalists themselves, when they try (sort of) to report out a story like the supposed Frost blockbuster, the bloggers prove themselves to be comically incompetent as they publish falsehoods, connect nonexistent dots, cherry-pick information, and generally make fools of themselves. And boy, were Malkin and company busy last week doing all of the above.

I think most people remember when Malkin decided to go after the Associated Press in a quixotic quest to discredit it, and failed beyond the human ability to measure. In light of that, or Rush Limbaugh's attempt to slam Michael J. Fox (whose character on Family Ties became the model of the modern-day Republican), why should the masses ever trust any "information" coming for these people?

Critics? Maybe. But reporters they are not.