Bloggers in the mainstream of journalism

While I’m sure everyone is tiring of the “are bloggers journalists” debate, two interesting items caught my eye today.

The first is that Peter Rost will now be blogging at BrandweekNRx. Rost is a blogger who has established a very high profile in the Pharma blogosphere by taking on Pfizer for off-label marketing practices on his blog, Question Authority. The journalist who had been authoring BrandweekNRx—Jim Edwards—will pursue a journalism fellowship at Columbia University (a very prestigious fellowship; Jim if you find this post, congrats!). Brandweek is a respected industry publication, and Jim Edwards is a journalist. So a blogger—a controversial one at that—is replacing a journalist on the blog of a publication. Pharmalot also covered this, and has more background on Rost.

The second item, via the Beltway blogroll of the National Journal, concerns how the federal bureaucracy views bloggers. The piece contrasts how two agencies, the CIA and the ATF, view the blogosphere. The CIA has decided to waive fees for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for bloggers, a privilege extended to journalists but not to individual citizens. So, the CIA has opted to treat bloggers as journalists.

ATF has been less than pleased with some coverage they have been receiving from some bloggers, and filed a complaint regarding some pictures taken by a blogger, arguing that he “did not have any affiliation with any newspaper or news agency.”

Are bloggers journalists? Today’s count: 2-1 in favor.