Can Bloggers Take Up The Slack When Newspapers Fold?

There's an interesting article in the Washington Post about something I've been thinking about. Newspapers are folding and slashing staff. The staff cuts have been going on for years and the fallout has been particularly obvious in the State press corps. There are still investigative pieces, but not the day in and day out pounding of bills, bills, bills and everything else that has to do with the Lege. Texas progressive bloggers have stepped in where there is a gap and have reported on bills and amendments, frequently building relationships with legislators and legislative staff in order to get a scoop or get a fuller explanation of intent. But, bloggers rely on traditional media, also, especially when they've uncovered something big (like wide-spread ethics violations) and need a bigger megaphone to get the word out. So, Texas bloggers have built relationships with TV and newspaper reporters. They (me included) all have more than a handful of these folks programmed into their cell phones. When I learned a few days ago that the San Antonio Express-News was laying off a large number of employees, the first thing I did was contact a reporter on the Capitol beat asking if political reporters had been laid off. The answer was "It doesn't look like it", which made me sigh with relief. While I think political bloggers are doing a fantastic job filling in gaps and creating news, we have to have unbiased media, with their ability to go at the stories full time, to keep government accountable. Bloggers have a point of view. There's no getting around that and I'm proud to be a part of that group that investigates and publicizes a Democratic point of view online. The Post article quotes a Virginia blogger:

"Newspapers can describe the candidates for governor in a more balanced, deeper way because you don't have a dog in the race. We bloggers do."

Traditional media is going to have to reinvent itself and their attempts to do that so far are not helpful:

"The smaller the press corps gets, the more you see personality stories rather than pieces about what is at stake for people," says Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. "Smoking in restaurants is always going to get covered, but now, when we make big changes in mental health or foster care, nobody covers it. That has a real impact: It would be hard for campaigns to get even more superficial, but they might."

So who for sure gets the information they need to make the best decions for themselves in this era of shrinking newspaper budgets? I'll let the Post reporter tell you:

But as long as people buy property, look for jobs, send kids to school and pay taxes, they will need credible information about state government. Something will rise to fill the news vacuum, someday. In the meantime, the lobbyists are getting the news they need. The voters, not so much.

Bloggers do their best work when they uncover news the traditional media can't dig into because of small staffs or other priorities. There are new business models that allow bloggers to do new media full time. But, I'm not convinced bloggers can or should fill all the gaps of shrinking traditional reporting. It's a little "d" democracy thing. Unbiased reporting is not an option. It's mandatory.