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Yes

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Yes, they should. There was once a day when we could trust our journalists. Not anymore. Lately the nightly news is all about ratings and who is better than Katie Couric.

Nowadays, the best blogs are ahead of or at least abreast of the national news in breaking stories, while none of them pose to be hypocritically "objective" in the way the main networks do. Bloggers at least tend to be honest about their political persuasions. We all know that ABC, NBC, and CBS are loosely "liberal" but swing more or less in favor of the party in power until there's a scandal or crisis such as 9-11. Meanwhile, Fox News is ... well, known as "Faux News" but loved by diehard Republicans and fans of Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly.

However, the problem with a "blog" credential is that anybody can create a blog. Even I have a blog! So, we can't just create a sweeping "Free Press Pass" if a person has a blog. There must be some way of insuring the blogger is genuine about the mission of fair reporting. And if they're going to be covering Congress, it seems to me the major point of the blog should be covering stories in the Senate or House. The blogger can state ahead of time whether they're Dem, Rep, or Independent. Perhaps what we can do is make a row of seats available by lottery to bloggers, or "Citizen Journalists," with an equal breakdown of seats to each party affiliation.

It's just an idea, but I think many of us are unhappy with the mainstream press. I know I miss the days of Walter Cronkite, who was so even-handed that even LBJ said, and I'm paraphrasing, "When I've lost Cronkite, I've lost." I'd love to trust the press again. But I can't. So it's up to us. This means, make room for bloggers.

Learn more about this author, Joyce Luck.
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