Self-Appointed Bloggers

Writing about Amy Schatz’ front page piece in today’s WSJ about Blue Hampshire subtitled, “Self-Appointed Bloggers Get Candidate Face Time;On the Bus With Edwards,” Tech President‘s Josh Levy wonders, “why did Schatz’s editors call them ‘Self-appointed bloggers’? Do they need to be anointed by the Ministry of Blogging and Politics before writing a post?”

While I agree that the phrasing is awkward — most bloggers are, after all “self-appointed,” — it’s quite possible that it was used to distinguish them from official campaign bloggers hired by the candidates or their PR firms. That’s a rather important distinction these days. Of course, it could just be the standard mainstream media annoyance that bloggers can compete for an audience without jumping through the proper hoops.

FILED UNDER: Blogosphere, Media, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. yetanotherjohn says:

    Given that few jurnalist are recruited at the point of a gun, couldn’t you describe all journalists as self appointed. Sure they had to be hired, but the put themselves forward for the job, thus appointing themselves. Similarly, I suspect that every blogger who got an interview is “hired” by several thousand readers per day.

  2. Diane C. Russell says:

    Isn’t the WSJ a self-appointed newspaper?

    I couldn’t decide if it was a dig at their competitors or just extra wordage to bulk up the apparent content.

  3. Anderson says:

    God knows, the only thing worse is the horde of self-appointed commenters.