In a recent debate on another blog, Brad’s Brain Brad made the statement:
”It would be easy for me to continue this game of trying to prove my point through news sources that you arbitrarily decree useless because they don't fall in line with your line of thought”
The news sources he refers to are blogs. I would love to continue the discussion with him on this point, but that is no longer possible. His comment did set me to thinking, are blogs credible sources of news? The emphasis in my question is on the word credible.
I view blogs, especially political blogs as commentary and opinion pages, the points of views represented in them are the thoughts of the writers and there is no editorial process, there is no fact checking other than what the author lists. When a blogger lists another blogs opinion piece as evidence of a fact it simply does not make it fact.
If Brian says the Sky is Red on his blog, and I say it’s red on mine and link to Brian’s blog, as proof, does that make the sky red?
By using credible sources such as NASA, The Weather channel, CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, I can say that the sky is blue and I have provide credible proof that it is indeed blue. Blogs are great to disseminate news, but only when they use credible sources, unfortunately some bloggers are viewing other blogs as credible without checking their sources. It is important to check the facts of anything you read on a blog, and you should not be satisfied with just one or two sources, try doing a google search on the topic.
I do not believe blogs, including my own, are news sources, as they are gateways to opinions and personal views. They can be Gateways to news sources, but not a credible source on thier own.
Where do you stand?
Are Blogs Credible News Sources?
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