The problem with bloggers

I've mentioned my loss of faith in the mainstream media earlier and in that article I also alluded to the power and place of blogging. I'm afraid I might not have made too clear what was really on my mind. Part of the argument that I've heard about the conglomerating of media outlets is that local news is somewhat provided by community bloggers anyways so why should the big boys spend much time or money on it. Now, maybe I'm wrong in my interpretin' but if that's the case who's watching the bloggers besides other bloggers? I mentioned in an earlier post how taking a few comments on a blog and making news out of it is pretty haphazard. Relying on bloggers as correspondents is navigatin' a minefield with only half a map. It gets you part of the way, but still leaves a lot of room for Kaboom! So, if we don't have some commitment by professional journalists with a code of conduct, folks with something to lose other than their online reputation, (by the way, I'm disillusioned that we even have that now, but for arguments sake let's say we do for the most part) how can we put our faith in any news source where the publishers are often seen to pick fights with one another out of pure ego. Anyhow, bloggers do have their place, but it is in no way a replacement for a professional news organization. They're just a welcome supplement. There's also still a lot of work to be done restoring the integrity of our professional journalists and the faith of us average Joes.