On Saturday night, the information age presented the Baltimore area with a highly unusual situation.
Local blogger Frank James MacArthur, aka A.F. James MacArthur or Baltimore Spectator, was involved in a standoff with police, who were trying to take him into custody for allegedly violating probation. He has since been taken into custody on gun possession charges stemming from weapons found in the home after the standoff ended.
Whereas a decade ago, the information would have predominantly come from television networks and the websites of major news publications. MacArthur used online tools available to tell his side of the story.
North Baltimore Patch Local Editor Adam Bednar discussed this topic on the Marc Steiner Show Wednesday on WEAA 88.9 FM.
MacArthur, who considers himself a journalist and activist, updated his Twitter account with play by play as to what was happening to him. He also took to www.spreaker.com, which allows people to live stream audio over the Internet, to broadcast his discussions with a police negotiator.
Many people consider it a testament to the power of the Internet to give voice to those the so-called mainstream press allegedly ignores. Some Patch readers posted supportive messages in the comments section on a story about the standoff.
“What truth has Mr. MacArthur blogged about that has set the police on such a rampage??? Think about it,” commenter Lee Titford wrote.
But not everyone is such a fan, or feels that citizen journalists could or should replace professionals.
David Zurawik, the Baltimore Sun’s media critic, wrote a column warning that MacArthur’s actions show the dangers of losing traditional media, including his newspaper, and replacing it with so-called citizen journalists running blogs and streaming online video and audio.
"And all of you mainstream media haters who fall on your schadenfreude knees each night praying for the demise of the Washington Post or The Baltimore Sun, this is the guy who is going to be bringing you information about your world if your prayers are ever answered. Good luck with that," Zurawik wrote.
What do you think of the role of “citizen journalists” in the social media age? What do you think the future holds for professional journalism? Tell us in the comments.
Uploading to Youtube, photo shares, blogs, or podcasts is our freedom. Whether we are being lied to or told the truth shows itself more often than not. Either way it is best to get both sides of the story before deciding anything. We humans as a whole have gotten used to reading "the news" and taking it for face value even when our gut says something doesn't fit. Often one of us will be there and see the other side, but getting what was seen out and known is hard to do, and more often dangerous to our jobs, reputations and lifestyles. Quite frankly, I appreciate the bloggers who give us the reality of things behind what is reported on news media. Often vital details are left out or the media is biased. And if you still think that bloggers are horribly wrong and we should only trust news sources... then answer this: You are standing in front of a judge convicted of something you did not do. Who do you want to sit on the jury and as your witnesses and defense... bloggers who were most likely there when it happened, or "the news" that got there fast as possible after it started and had to set up equipment before making a report? I think if you were Frank James MacArthur, you might hope for the bloggers, because "the news" isn't telling the story in full. I'm not even from Baltimore and I can see that much. The day you remove both sides of the story, is the day freedom dies.
The internet provides a venue for what used to be letter to the editor writers _ in short, commentary. The problem with commentary is that it is strictly opinion. Professional journalists, who are writing news stories, are required to use facts, or the best facts that are available and able to be confirmed. Bloggers are not under this constraint. I see information disseminated as fact by bloggers which is simply their interpretation of the story. As to agendas, Bias is rampent everywhere. One used to read both sides of a story to get the full story. Now, with advent of all of the conservative and liberal talk shows and bloggers, one only reads what they agree with initially.
Neither the scofflaw, narcissist, Don Quixote-esque "Spectator", nor the tattered rags, the holy names of which Zurawik utters, offer much that appeals to me for consumption.
The facts that are left out are often as important as the facts that are reported.
The MSM does not address the inherant problems of the status quo of the State monopoly on maximum violence. For a brilliant discussion of why this monopoly is neither necessary or desirable, go to Mises.org and listen to the podcasts by Hans Hoppe. Here in san Francisco, we have the SF private patrol., an institution written into the city charter since the Gold Rush days. Officer Jane Warner patrolled the Gay Castro district for decades, hired by the local businesses.. When she died of cancer, a spontaneous monument was planted at 18th and Castro in her honor. The mini park accross from Harvey Milk Plaza bears her name. the private patrol has sufferd from the SFPD's jealosy. The plaque honoring her stolen.. The biggest problem with our police is that they are not paid by the local citizens. Most of the funding comes from the Feds and the State. Citizens controlling the purse strings of the local law enforcers was ann essential bulwark of our liberty according to DeToqueville. in his seminal work democracy in America. The Federalization of our local police is one of the greatest threats to our country. Witness Mexico's Federalis. When the locals have no say over the police, tyranny will reign. They taught DeToqueville when I went to Baltimore Polytechnic back in the day. Bet they don't now.