...somebody find the matches, we got us a straw man to burn...

here...

The premise of citizen journalism is that regular people can now collect information and pictures with video cameras and cellphones, and distribute words and images over the Internet. Advocates argue that the acts of collecting and distributing makes these people "journalists." This is like saying someone who carries a scalpel is a "citizen surgeon" or someone who can read a law book is a "citizen lawyer." Tools are merely that. Education, skill and standards are really what make people into trusted professionals. Information without journalistic standards is called gossip.

I don't think anyone's ever really argued that education, skill and standards are what make people into trusted professionals. But even if they did, such a triad lacks one critical element that's quite obviously absent from modern journalism: Integrity. The evidence of such a lack is there in spades for anyone who doesn't consciously have his or her ears and eyes plugged, but let's just take a look at one particular area of that motherlode: The gun issue. Seems like every time so-called assault weapons come into the arena of discussion you have some ignorant journalist (hey, there goes the education leg of that table!) conflating semi-auto and full-auto weaponry, often making it sound like one could get a fully-automatic AK-47 at your friendly local gun store after September 13, 2004. (Why we should stop pointing out the difference and take a different tack on the issue I'll ponder more in the not-too-distant future.) You'll also not find it mentioned that many of the cartridges these so-called "assault rifles" are chambered for are quite often less powerful than many cartridges used for hunting -- or that, just for a couple of examples, two of the most noteworthy killings of the 1960s, the JFK assassination and the University of Texas clock tower shooting, were carried out with weapons not that much different from many traditional hunting rifles. Find me someone who was in Dealey Plaza that day so I can ask them if it was worth a fart in a windstorm that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't have more than six rounds at one whack to work with.
But before I get too far off the point, the fact is that "educated journalists" ain't all this guy cracks them up to be. Not even in the specialty arenas like, once again, guns. I've heard it said more times than I can count that one can find a more honest assessment on Internet gun boards like The High Road than one finds in most if not all traditional gun magazines. And I'd believe it too, because if I spent good coin on a firearm, only to find out...
...it was less than what I expected...
...if it malfunctioned...
...repeatedly...
...if the company's customer service did not treat me with respect...
...if the gun still malfunctioned after it was supposedly serviced...
...if the folks at the gun manufacturer told me that was the ammunition's fault, or worse, MY fault...

you better believe I'd be honest and up-front about it. On the forum AND on my blog.
And as for this...

...we have already seen the line between news and entertainment blur enough to destroy significant credibility. Continuing to do nothing as information flow changes will further erode it. Journalism organizations who choose to do nothing may soon find the line between professional and citizen journalism gone as well as the trust of their audiences.

Call me crazy, but I'd say in many instances that trust IS already gone. In any event, David Hazinski, you can take your standards by which you don't even abide and blow them out your hypocritical, self-righteous ass.
...never mind, of course, things like this...