Sometimes... life is better in black and white

Tuesday, February 3

A New Mission

I know I know – it’s been months since I’ve updated this blog. Here’s the thing. This is the first blog I’ve ever had and when I created it I had no idea the power of social networking. I hadn’t yet joined twitter and other than MySpace, which I only knew about through my children, I wasn’t familiar with any other blogging site. In fact, I really created this page as just a, “well I’ll blog if I have time,” kind of thing without any forethought into what it could mean for both myself and others.

Since then however, I have learned a lot and am now a proud member of Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and several other social networking sites. This includes MySpace, which I swore at one time I would never join since I thought anyone my age who had a MySpace really needed to get a life.  Yeah sorry about that.

So, here it is a few months since I’ve blogged last and I have finally, after all this time, managed to get comfortable with the online social world. And those feelings of awkwardness I once felt? Those passed a while ago.

In the last months while getting acquainted with the social side of the Internet I have been thinking about what it is I really want to do with this blog and I’ve made a few decisions.

I want this site to serve several purposes – and I may change this in the future as I learn more but for now, these are my plans.

I would like my blog to serve as a resource to journalists whether they are freelance reporters or working in the field full-time. Also, as this blog is called Bottles and Bylines I think it would seem fitting for it to be a site for mothers who are juggling families while working in the chaotic and insane media to come to and receive some support knowing others are in their same situation. Maybe they’ll even find some suggestions here that might help to make life run a little smoother.

Finally, I would like my blog to be a site of commentary and analysis of the media. As most know my politics are conservative however, as a journalist I have to make sure to always provide fair and balanced reporting.

It seems however, many people believe most of the press is biased and have even become spokespeople for our politicians. Some have even gone as far as to accuse us of hiding the truth and covering up facts and information from the public.

Whether that’s true or not I’m not offering any opinion at this point. What I would like to do however, is take a close look at the media in large and start discussing what’s really happening. Have they lost their ability to be fair and balanced? Is it their job to be objective and how realistic is that – they are human after all? Did they help to get President Obama elected and are they catering to his whims in assisting him to get “his” message out rather than hold him accountable to the people?

These are just some of the issues I’d like to analyze. And in doing so hopefully offer my readers an insight to the press they may not have while at the same time helping us, the media, to start looking at ourselves and asking whether or not we are doing are jobs. Finally, I would like to provide my readers with a historical view of the press.  

That all said, I don’t know how many of my goals for this site I’m going to be able to accomplish but at least I have something in mind which is more than I did when I started. So let’s get going and hopefully together we can make this an awesome blog where people will want to come.

Tomorrow . . . I will be blogging about the Washington Press and how many people are saying they are acting as the PR agents to President Obama.

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