Ankle-biters?

What is it with these folks in the Old Media? It would appear that there isn't very many of them that are taking the drubbing that they are getting from the Blogsphere very well. I thought that getting feedback from their readers was suppose to be a good thing and make them better journalists. Instead, we get cracks about sitting around in our underwear and such. Here's the lastest swipe from Newsweek:

I celebrate the liberating tools that let people post their thoughts unfiltered. But as with many other utopian predictions about how the open nature of the Net will create arenas that transcend foibles of the physical world, our faults have followed us to cyberspace. We were promised a society of philosophers. But the Blogosphere is looking more and more like a nation of ankle-biters.

Instapundit weighs in on this as well, and has a good point about how "our betters" are treating us.

In his opinion, I should be blogging on health care. Maybe I would be, if Big Media covered things like the Cambodia story honestly, as it did not. (Even now, Levy doesn't mention the Kerry campaign's admission that he wasn't there.) Indeed, as I wrote back when the Cambodia issue was hot, "the press -- and this, to me, is the most interesting and disturbing part of the story -- has been shamelessly covering for Kerry." That seemed like a big deal to me, and still does. Follow the link to read much more on that subject.

I've always thought well of Levy, and I'm sure that he didn't intend to misrepresent my meaning. But -- as is so often the case with Big Media folks -- he came in to the interview with his storyline predetermined, and he put things into that mold whether they fit or not. (It also, as always, makes me wonder where else this is happening without my noticing it.)

"Predetermined." As in yesterday's 10 page story on blogs that already had it's mind made up.