As the pundits debate the meaning and future of blogging going mainstream., they seem to miss one piece in the puzzle: investigative reporting. Basically, bloggers (including myself) sit in their comfortable home offices and opine and prognosticate about reportage that some other hardworking, actual journalist has busted her ass to do. As the daughter of two working journalists and as a writer who has done some long, reported features for major magazines, I can assure you that writing a 3,000 word fact-based article requires a great deal more specialized skill and hard work than it does for me to link to that same article on my blog.

Blogging is neat-o, and critical analysis/punditry is important, but we still need real journalists and their product.