Seat at the Table

I can’t resist doing this after reading through Joseph Rago’s ten cent word driven anti-blogger rant this morning….

Please note that this blogger* is pointing out innacurate information on the front page (A1 folks) of the Wall Street Journal.   The article on LCDs says that “The [LCD] TVs, which offer better images than conventional tube models.”  Actually, conventional tubes offer better images in both old format and newer HDTV resolution (e.g., better viewing angles, better black color, sharper etc).  LCDs are just cooler, flat and will end up being much larger.  But as of today you can still get a better image for the same or less money with a tube.  

So there it is, a blogger found innacurate information right on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.  It took me about fifteen minutes to scan articles, check facts and post this correction for the public to find.

Of course, this is just a small innacuracy and doesn’t change the point of the article.  I’m just backing up the point in my previous post on this topic that among other roles, bloggers can be invaluable ombudsman (obviously on topics more important than TV image facts).   You can probably find similar small problems in any publication and as a public relations professional I’m alway nitpicking small facts that get reported incorrectly.  However, there are sometimes major problems and that’s where bloggers have played a key public role alongside so-called MSM (again, ask Dan Rather).  

(*I usually  usually more of a short format writer using a blog based publishing system.  However, I could resist taking a quick poke at the Rago’s column as a blogger).

P.S., You gotta love the fact that Rago was so busy using big words (far more than I see in any other column) that he forgot to check punctuation.