Washington Post reporter Jonathan Finer reports on the "new Ernie Pyles" in the Iraq theater: soldiers who blog. Finer (who we can't help picturing as a souped-up, more cosmopolitan version of Ad Age columnist/Laurel Touby boy toy Jon Fine) notes that this is another instance of creeping blogger triumphalism:
Since the 1850s, when a London Times reporter was sent to chronicle the Crimean War, journalists have generally provided the most immediate first-hand depictions of major conflicts. But in Iraq, service members themselves are delivering real-time dispatches--in their own words--often to an audience of thousands through postings on their blogs
We know we're going out on a limb here, but we have to think that this is one instance where citizen bloggers might gratefully hand over their front row seats in a major current event to the MSM. Hell, they'd probably even spring for complimentary summer tours off the Crimea. --HOLLY MARTINS
