Blogging in the news

As I type Salaam Pax is explaining the current state of Iraq most eloquently with some fantastic graphics (provided with paper, scissors, a marker and some magazine photos) on BBC2's Newsnight. That he blogs is covered briefly with a simple explaination of blogging ('online diary') and then is only referred to with occasional images of our correspondent typing. Otherwise he is an expert on the ground with access other journalists in the west might find hard to come by. Gripping stuff.

Contrast this with (usually excellent) Channel4 News report covering the Hartlepool by-election: it mentions the LibDem's candidate Jody Dunn's blog and a spot of trouble about Dunn's light-hearted rendering of local life (looks pretty tame to me). The article featured lots of tapping into keyboards and references to blogging which got in the way of either the story about the state of the by-election or the story that a by-election candidate is bypassing normal channels to put her view across. Shame really.

Blogging is no longer novel: its what people do with it that matters, as Salaam Pax so perfectly demonstrates.