Widening The Lens.

One of the great motivations behind the expansion of the Internet and expecially the blogosphere has been to compensate for the 'sins of omission' of the big media. Obviously there's 'fisking' too, but undeniably with its international scope and its individual base, the blogosphere can reach the parts other newsgatherers can't.

Nevertheless, as Glenn Reynolds recently put it, he doesn't regard blogs as his primary news source- it's just that with the benefit of compare/contrast, immediate and time-specific access to (sometimes) informed speculation and (sometimes) eyewitness communication, the blogosphere has its advantages.

The big media is becoming aware of blogs though, and is aware too that, as with other news sources, their ability to pick up and use blogs and the internet will affect how well they are perceived as news organisations.

Anyway, Kerry at BBBC was right to commend the Beeb's Sarah Brown for covering the story of Iraqi blogs like Iraq the Model. I.T.M. has been growing on me the whole period of about six months I've been reading it. The three guys who write on it are intelligent, funny, mature, thoughtful, and above all, positive.

I couldn't help wondering though at this sudden flurry of interest from the Beeb in Iraq the Model. Could it be that they were spooked into action by Paul Wolfowitz, who quoted the I.T.M. writers approvingly in a a recent article (very much a follow up to GWB's Iraq policy speech ten days previously), published by WSJ 24 hours before Sarah Brown's article came online?

With the Internet, timing is everything. Which reminds me to say that timings on my blog offerings are very irregular as I often make a note of an article and only later write about it, and then forget to change the timings. Mea minor culpa.