"And my greatest hubris in this is not to represent bloggers but instead to think that I can defend bloggers to journalists and journalists to bloggers. You see, I'm not a world dominator. I'm something even harder to bear: a polyanna.

I do earnestly believe -- as someone who straddles both worlds: mediaman by day, blogboy by night -- that we must work together to improve news, inform the public, and even save journalism. It's about changing the relationship of news to the public -- getting past the idea that news is done and fishwrap when we're done with it and realizing that publishing is the start of the conversation, for that is when the public corrects us and adds information and perspective we did not have.

It's about extending the newsroom in ways we cannot afford to do, as our revenue shrinks. It's about recapturing credibility, respect, and humanity for journalism. It's about changing news together (and, no, I don't know where this trajectory takes us, but we both certainly know it's not going to stay the same).

When bloggers hold journalists in disdain, I scold them and remind them that they would be nothing without reporters; they are not Danny Pearl, sacrificing his life to find the truth, and they are not the Wall Street Journal, supporting him in that quest. And when reporters disdain bloggers, I remind them that they are dismissing the public they seek to serve."

Jeff Jarvis anlässlich eines Briefwechsels mit Bill Keller, executive Editor der New York Times.

Die vollständige Geschichte gibt's hier zum nachlesen.

[Via Dan Gillmor on Grassroots, Journalism etc. ]