I agree with that. Skube felt it was perfectly fine to write about a subject he knew almost nothing about. (He still does think that, I believe.) Not knowing who Josh Marshall is when your subject is whether blogs can be journalism is like a columnist deciding to make Nascar his theme of the day, when he never heard of Dale Earnhardt, Jr or his Dad. Would you say he deserves what he gets? I would.

“Most bloggers are diary-keepers, wannabe pundits, linkmasters or hobbyists focused on a particular pastime. Real, shoe-leather journalism is the rare exception, not the rule.”

No disagreement there, except that I would say a hell of a lot are pundits, not wanna-bes but real ones. But what you overlook is that most bloggers are also well aware of what they are, and don’t pretend to be “gumshoe reporters.” They don’t think they could replace full-time reporters; they know where their material comes from.

Skube had one great thought in his op-ed, and it was well expressed. “The more important the story, the more incidental our opinions become.” Very true.

He also awarded a Pulitzer Prize to the Washington Post that it never received because he failed to check his facts, and he wrote about a site he had never visited because he just didn’t care.