Bill Barol on citizen journalism: journalism it aint

The LAT buries the lede, though, in not noting until the 14th paragraph that Fowler's question to Clinton was "What do you think of that hatchet job somebody did on you in Vanity Fair?"

I'm not going to go all "I have 25 years experience as a reporter" on you here, but I do want to point out one thing: Getting Bill Clinton to go nuts over somebody writing unkindly about him, and doing it by waving the red-flag words "hatchet job" in his face, isn't called "journalism." It's called "poking the bear," and any sentient being with a digital voice recorder can do it if he or she can get within shouting range of the notoriously cranky ex-president.

To be fair, it isn't clear from the Times piece whether Fowler describes herself as a "citizen journalist," or if that's the paper's choice of words. What is clear is that the term has become widely used on CNN and elsewhere, that it's now broadly current, and that it's an affront to people who practice the craft and the profession of journalism... a profession that ought not to include fish-in-a-barrel tactics like ambushing the world's most famous hothead, needling him until he snaps and then posting the audio with an accompanying note that says, more or less, Hey, everybody. Look what I just did!

You can call Fowler's brush with Clinton anything you like. Call it "Participatory citizenship" or "On-scene audio-visual blogging." You can call it "Midge," for all I care. But "journalism" it ain't. And journalists, like the ones at the LA Times, should know better.