When commentary doesn't illuminate

In an op-ed for the big paper on the left coast, journalism professor Michael Skube complains that "the blogosphere is the loudest corner of the Internet, noisy with disputation, manifesto-like postings and an unbecoming hatred of enemies real and imagined."

"One gets the uneasy sense that the blogosphere is a potpourri of opinion and little more," he writes.

One does? Perhaps one gets such an uneasy sense from not reading the blogs about which one is opining. Or from not writing what actually gets published.

I have to wonder whether the Los Angeles Times is playing the troll or the fool in this little operetta. I'm not sure which is worse. We all would be best served by journalism that aims to provide light and not merely heat, and that applies to the op-ed page.

See also:

Jay Rosen
Dan Gillmor
Ed Cone, from 2005
Paul "the Real Paul" Jones

Update: A couple of midafternoon additions move this forward a bit. CBS Public Eye's Matthew Felling points out Skube's "selective quoting'; The Telegraph's Shane Richmond defends Jay Rosen's stiletto jab at Skube, and Jay Rosen launches a crowdsourced effort to create a response aimed at educating the readers of LATimes.com, and maybe even a journalism professor here and there.

Fascinating and fast-moving.