[DeltAlum]

Here's at least part of what it comes down to for me.

While news media (even major ones) make mistakes, there is a certain ethical code that the majority of journalists believe in and their organizations adhere to.

I suspect that if you take the number of mistakes (or downright misconduct on the part of journalists as in two or three cases recently) that professional journalists make and compare them to the number of mistakes, or really baseless "stories" on the blogs, that the latter would win hands down.

Within the past couple of weeks, our much quoted Mr. Drudge published that the President of NBC News had been fired and even named his replacement. Remember his story about the huge misconduct story that was supposed to come out on Senator Kerry during the campaign?

Totally wrong.

So who does answer to? Only himself. Had he been writing for a major news organization, he would have been fired long ago.

Which is another point. The journalists who lied about sources or made major mistakes are out of work. The blogs go on.