Hugh Hewitt discusses the advantages that lawyer-bloggers have over many journalists:

I have been both a lawyer/law professor for two decades and a televison/radio/print journalist for 15 years of those 20. It takes a great deal more intelligence and discipline to be the former than to be the latter, which is why the former usually pays a lot more than the latter. It is no surprise to me, then, when lawyers/law professors like those at Powerline and Instapudnit prove to be far more adept at exposing the “Christmas-in-Cambodia” lie and other Kerry absurdities than old-school journalists. The big advantage is in research skills, of course, and in an eye for inconsistencies which make or break cases and arguments.

Lawyers turned amateur journalists are going to be much better at it than time-serving scribblers, and even non-lawyer bloggers with superior research skills –think Captain Ed, Tom McGuire and Polipundit– are going to run rings around “pros” who aren’t in a hurry to bring down their favored candidate. They will be assisted in their effort by the full-time labors of “new media” pros like Jim Geraghty and John McIntyre.

This space is not particularly kind to lawyers, but I agree with Hugh’s point. Lawyers are particularly helpful in a critical regard: important facts which are inconsistent with the story line or editorial biases of the elite broadsheets no longer get a pass. Counsel for the opposing side is present, and the people are going to see the evidence. They will see it first via the blogosphere and talk radio, and it will reach critical mass through opinion columns, editorial cartoons, or otherwise.

Then it will appear in the elite media. I have to say, I was surprised at the right-wing-Republican-attack-machine approach to the story of the New York Times. I had no right to be, so shame on me. The worldview of the Times editorial board is impenetrable by 100 megatons of common sense or evidence. The world changed first on August 1, 1988, and it changed a second time last week.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2004 at 7:41 am and is filed under General, New Media, Red Shift, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.