Are professional journalists really better at this?

For the last several years there has been a running debate about the merits of citizen journalism vs. the MSM vs. the possibility of doing "pro-am" reporting.

The release of Hillary Clinton's White House records today provides an interesting test case since they are available over the Internet.

Who will make the most startling discovery?
Who will do it first?
Who will be able to make sense of the massive data dump?

My guess is that it will be The Washington Post or The New York Times that will do the best job of aggregating the data and presenting it in some interactive format.

But I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the most interesting find comes from the journalistic margin.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Years ago a writer named Frederic Kelly immortalized his Uncle Robert in the pages of The Baltimore Sun with a column called "Robert's Rule," which gave some valuable tips on how to celebrate the saint's feast sensibly. Out of respect of the copyright law, I can't post the entire article (although I am sorely tempted), but here are some of the highlights.

My Uncle Robert says the difference between a rich man who drinks and a poor man who drinks is the rich man becomes an alcoholic and the poor man winds up a drunk.

My Aunt Kate says if anybody would know, my Uncle Robert would. He has poured enough alcohol down his throat in his time to qualify for both positions.

But he has class, my Uncle Robert has, class and a fine Irish wit. Even my Aunt Kate acknowledges that.

She used to complain about his drinking until he told he did not like to drink, it was just something to do while he was getting drunk. Then, when she asked him why he always came home half-drunk, he said it was probably because he ran out of money.

Anyway my Uncle Robert loves St. Patrick’s Day. He considers it one of God’s gifts to mankind and he celebrates it with near-religious fervor. He starts drinking early in the morning and does not stop until he sees the snakes St. Patrick chased out of Ireland twining themselves around the chandelier.

Based on years of experience, Uncle Robert supposedly wrote a book called Robert’s Rules of Order: Social Tips for St. Patrick’s Day Partygoers (Or How to Have a Good Time and Still Get Invited Back Again Next Year).

Drinking, like dress, is a matter of choice. Vodka, Irish, gin and bourbon are always appropriate. Green beer, of course, is traditional and one of the most festive St. Patrick’s Day drinks is a shot of whiskey followed by a glass of beer (or you can reverse it). Later on you can do your mixing in a vase or a crab pot.

However, do not mix beer with gin. Do not mix it with orange juice, either, in the belief that you making some sort of statement about human rights. Remember, too, if you are drinking wine, use a glass. Never drink straight from the bottle unless you see your hostess doing so first.

In the event a buffet is served, use a plate. Be sure that you are sitting down before you put the plate on your lap. If you forget, quietly push it under a chair with your foot.

Perhaps the most important thing to know is when and how to leave.

Finally, there are several ways to tell when the party is over. The considerate guest, the guest who would be invited back next year, learns to recognize them.

It is time to slip away when the police arrive, or when a delegation of neighbors offers to burn the house down. Another sure sign is when the host sees you and recoils in terror.

Leave as quietly as possible. Do not look back. Do not offer to pay for any damage. That can be done nicely in a note the next day. And at the same time, you can inquire about anything you happen to be missing—hats, coats, shoes, eyeglasses, watches, loved ones.

If you recognize yourself (or a younger version of yourself) in this column, don't forget to raise a glass to Uncle Robert. If you fail to see the humor in this, don't bother letting me know.

You read it here first

As fallout from the mortgage crisis continues to roil the economy, you have to wonder how long it will take the Obama campaign to pin the blame on former Co-President Hillary Clinton.

Apparently politicians, and the Washington media, are afflicted with a short memory.

It's not that hard to draw a line from the subprime mess back to December 1999, when President Bill Clinton signed banking deregulation into law.

But, oops, there's a problem with this argument--Barack has raised almost as much money from commercial banks as Hillary has.

But, then again, he wasn't around when the law was changed in a way to allow/encourage banks to extend subprime loans and to expand their mortgage business. It was also during the Clinton administration, and under the "oversight" of Clinton appointees to federal banking agencies, that the derivatives business really took off.

Cutbacks at Northwestern?

Gannett's cost cutting initiatives could lead to job reductions in its Wisconsin newspaper group, according to Gannett Blog.

Leads and lags, Babs, leads and lags

Gloom has settled in over Oshkosh-Bloggerland. The evil Stew has stuffed the online edition of his newspaper into our mouths and silenced us. The hope of a new technology has failed us. Just as Neil Young recently remarked that "the time when music could change the world has passed," perhaps we have to acknowledge that the time when the Internet could change the world has passed.

Not.

Ron Hardy pronounced the Oshkosh blogs dead yesterday. But I have to say, in the words of recent campus visitor Stanley Crouch, that you must "beware of premature autopsies."

Wynton Marsalis will tell you that the rhythm is the most important part of jazz, and in a larger sense the truth is that timing is all.

Right now we are in a bit of an ebb, but I don't think that the Internet alternative to corporate media is over. Sometimes what we have been doing has been a leader and sometimes a laggard. Sometimes we have been ahead of the curve, sometimes behind. But that is just the way things go. The blogs can rise again.

The present online moment in Oshkosh may belong to the Northwestern, but that is not something that will last indefinitely. (If you want to see how things are really going inside Gannett-land, you should follow this blog.)

In any case, I wouldn't blame (or credit, depending on your POV) Northwestern Executive Editor Stew Rieckman for the slowdown in Oshkosh-Bloggerland. There are a lot of other factors are work, not least the shift of OCAT into Oshkosh Community Media. I mean, Web streaming of public meetings--how cool is that?

I always thought that one of the biggest challenges in creating a blog culture in Oshkosh was simply that this is a conservative community that lacks savvy, including technological savvy. But as the inevitability of the Internet finally laps upon the shores of the Fox Valley, aided and abetted by the Northwestern I might add, then the blog moment may return.

I say "may" not "will" because there are other factors that have to be considered. The key question is whether the act of blogging can have an impact on local government.

Right now we have amazingly unresponsive government bodies in the form of the Common Council and the Board of Education. They are both pretty good at going through the motions of pretending to listen, but in terms of actual results, there is not much to see.

The city manager got the boot, and it appears the school supe plans to light out for some other territory. But the Council and the school board just seem to go on forever, unwilling or unable to deal with the problems before them (although pretty good at cranking up their PR machines).

It's important to remember, though, that change is always in the wind, and there may be some changes yet to come.