DR. HUXTABLE MEETS THE BLOGOSPHERE:

DR. HUXTABLE MEETS THE BLOGOSPHERE: Matt Rosenberg analyzes how the press covered Bill Cosby’s speech at the NAACP two weeks ago and concludes:

Dick Meyer of CBSNews.com gets it right: “Plenty of white writers or editors simply avoid wading into this altogether because it is perceived as too risky, too easy to be accused of prejudice, or meddling.” And that avoidance, as Meyer notes, “ensures the issues become even more buried. Pimp rap goes uncriticized. Schools stay bad.”

The slow but now-steady spread of the Cosby story illustrates one more way bloggers serve an invaluable function: not just by rebutting or correcting the news; but by watering and “sunshining” stories that are dying on the vine because they disrupt the pre-conceived liberal agendas of media elites.

Many bloggers who depend on the news hold in low regard the person whose job title is “Page One Editor,” “National Editor,” or “Foreign Editor.” And rightly so, all too often. These folks play up what they like according to their politics, and downplay what they don’t like. What gets two inches on page A12 might really deserve 25 inches, starting on Page One.

Enter the humble blogger. True, the percentage of Internet users who report they view blogs regularly is still low. But even then, we’re talking some 31 million regular blog viewers. Admittedly, some blogs are about knitting, snow-boarding, or origami. Others are authored by navel-gazing college students, polyamorists, vegan anarchists, or self-declared alcoholics detailing each wretched night’s debauch. But watch out for many of the rest. Their reach grows.

The Cosby story