Ron Williams States His Problem With Bloggers And Then Proceeds To Use Their Work
On today’s opinion page of the News Journal Ron Williams makes several points.
1. He really doesn’t like bloggers, especially anonymous bloggers
2. Bloggers that use to be journalists are sorta okay, but, in general, he doesn’t like bloggers.
3. Having got that off his chest he then proceeds to write an article about a blog post.
Priceless.
Tags: Delaware Blogosphere, KWS, News Journal, Ron Williams
Bah Humbug!
The dinosaurs didn’t like the asteroids much either.
Heh, Williams spends a lot of time bashing bloggers, then explaining why Lee Williams is o.k.
I get the feeling that he’s just jealous that he can’t write anonymously. And after seeing a sample of his work, I understand why.
Translation:
“I like journalists that are paid. Preferably paid by ME so I can control what they write. Or if not me, by some other conservative corporation that can control what they write. And if you have anything anti-establishment to say, I want to see your name on it so your employer can come after you.
But this business about writing without getting paid is just wrong.”
Hey Ron, if you like journalists so much why don’t you go hire some more.
Bloggers exsist because Ron Williams sucks ass. Yes Ron, it is that simple.
Were there no void, people wouldn’t turn to blogs to fill it.
If the News-Journal aggressively pursued stories that have been ‘broken’ by blogs, the stories, uh, wouldn’t be ‘broken’ by blogs.
Were the News-Journal Editorial Page worth reading, as it once was, people would be less likely to turn to blogs for lively public affairs discourse. Were the letters to the editor more than templates with blanks filled in, people would feel less of a need to express their opinions elsewhere.
The shrinking relevance of the News-Journal is perhaps the greatest reason that blogs are growing and flourishing.
Sorry, Ron. Sometimes the truth hurts. Perhaps if ‘truth’ was what the News-Journal pursued, they wouldn’t be in this position.
And the NJ comments section is probably the most toxic comments area in Delaware. Seriously. This is the only place that I read regularly where I actually use the Report Abuse function. Not like that does much, though. But this is a function of being cheap (it would cost the NJ to have someone do the job of monitoring comments and likely a question of not caring. because why care about your own backyard when you can bash everyone elses.
And the quoting thing? When the NJ notices this blog they can hardly bring themselves to link to us (that’s called netetiquette Ron), much less quote us accurately. And we are not hard to find or contact if you so wanted to.
But how about a quick survey? Everyone who would read Ron Williams if he was a blogger comment here.
ps. to Ron:
The man’s name is Steve Kinion, not Steve Kinin.
I’m not sure there’s much of Williams’s work I would look at even free of charge. Personally I think the model of paid opinion columnists is outdated. Everyone on the internet has an opinion that they will share with you for free. I think what people will pay for is local reporting and analysis by experts. Instead newspaper are increasingly using pool content (like AP) which is already old news even if you read the paper in the AM and general opinion writers like Williams.
Newspapers started it by sparking stories from Drudge posts.
The thing about blogs is the editing function is left to the reader. It is a different kind of product.
Blogs are basically the front end to the news now. I read blogs to lead me to MSM stories or primary sources. I read blogs on the left and the right, and I have my own filters to reject items that do not seem credible. It is incredibly patronizing of Ron to think I need him to spoonfeed my news to me.
I could never go back to having some fogey with hairs sprouting out of his ears decide what I should read in my news.
Exactly, El Som. Everyone knows the print media will never again be what it once was, and there are certainly some niches that the internet and the blogosphere can fill. But if there’s one thing the “real” journalists should still have the advantage on and resources for, it’s investigative work. I thought the whole point of having the right to a free press in the Bill of Rights (the first big example of “Pass and Fix”, btw) was that the press would keep the government and its officials accountable. Nowadays, too many papers have confused the right to a free press with the right to remain silent.
He’s citing as reliable the NYT’s? The ones who ran Breitbart’s Acorn Pimp story without ANY fact check for months and have YET to apologize for their sloppy reporting?
I guess ‘professional” journalists still drink oldskool.
cassandra – That’s actually an improvement for Ron. He spent the entire campaign unsure how to spell KWS’s name.
Lee Williams is a tool. Except for the top editors, the entire TNJ newsroom despised him. He was their pet – no one else got nine months to work on a single story and then milk it for an equal amount of time by getting Republicans to bash Minner and launch “investigations.” If anyone else had talked about guns as much as he did, a workplace safety investigation would have been started. He quit in a temper tantrum after they laid off his wife, thinking that they wouldn’t call his bluff. I guess it turns out that money is more important to Gannetteers than loyalty, huh, Lee? Now that he’s working for CRI, his true colors have come out.
Maybe if wRONg would put his bottle of booze away and do some actual reporting, he’d have some ground to stand on. As it is, he’s gasping for air from a part of the media that is failing the public miserably.
“what with all the anonymous vitriol and nastiness that spews from the keyboard of the cowards whose conviction of their own opinions aren’t worthy of their signature.”
Funny, he doesn’t feel that way about the anonymous sources he cites so frequently.
What really amazed me was how disjointed the article was. He starts with disliking bloggers, meanders into the CRI post on KWS and then ends with a somewhat generic debate on the Insurance Com. Office.
He had an introductory paragraph and then lost his point – if he ever had one.
This column would have been given a failing grade in most high schools.
Ron is just being Ron. The issue in the KWS story is wether the author is unbiased or a wholly owned subsidiary of the GOP
And the NJ comments section is probably the most toxic comments area in Delaware. Seriously.
That might even be understating it. If you ever want to rid yourself of the idea of the inherent goodness of Man, go read TNJ’s comments. I long ago gave up on it. And God forbid if the story has a name that even vaguely sounds Hispanic… The conversation is assured to quickly go in a direction that would make even Tom Tancredo blush.
Isn’t a guy who writes newspaper editorials basically a paid blogger? I see no difference, other than pay, between a Ron Williams and a cassandra, except cass’s research is usually more thorough, and she spells people’s names correctly.
The difference in his mind seems to be the fact that he signs his name to it. Although I fail to see how this act makes the trash people like Will, Kristol, and Krauthammer print any better.
And don’t forget that she’s also a crazy Wiz with bacon.
Even fleeing the city in the middle of it’s so called renaissance wasn’t enough to give the editorial board the testicles to confront the demons they left behind.I’ll never forgive them for not taking a stong editorial position condemning police violence in the murder of Derek Hale.Maybe even that useless issue from the loins of our own Joe would have smelled the testesterone and had his deputy conduct a REAL investigation,instead of the hatchet job I read,clearing the shooter,that assassin,Sgt.Browne.
http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/news-journals-ron-williams-fire-scuds-at-bloggers/
Comment by Jason330
“Bloggers exsist because Ron Williams sucks ass. Yes Ron, it is that simple.”
LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can all agree that CRI is awful though – when are we going to see a real investigation of them? They’re so disjointed – my favorite is their weird obsession with guns on DART buses and middle schools.
Don’t hold your breath for TNJ to investigate them. Editor David Ledford would never let anyone say a bad word about his former protoge Lee Williams.
she spells people’s names correctly.
LOL!
I also have the advantage of not being a mouthpiece for Tom Gordon… 🙄
a crazy Wiz with bacon
The Bacon Wiz! I need to do some more bacon blogging soon.
“The NJ comments section is probably the most toxic comments area in Delaware. Seriously.
That might even be understating it.”
It is understating it. I especially appreciate all the commenters who feast on the fatal auto accident stories. It’s a rare the News Journal comment gang can’t find a dozen reasons that the person who died brought it on him/herself.
Compared with such cretins, Tea Partiers sound like Lincoln.