The End of Honest Mistakes? (from: mediabistro.com: FishBowlDC)
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/sort_of_serious_stuff/the_end_of_honest_mistakes_1958.asp
Jeff Gannon and Eason Jordan probably didn’t know each other existed a month ago, but their lives and their professional fate became inexorably linked this past week. Sometime in the last ten days, the amorphous “blogosphere” decided neither of them deserved to work in journalism anymore, and at that moment it was merely a matter of time. Indeed when the history of the blogosphere and the founding of the grassroots journalism movement is written, the second week in February 2005 will mark a historic moment.
It was in this week that bloggers managed, with only a little assistance from the mainstream media, to take down two journalists-one from the right and one from the left. On any given week the Jeff Gannon saga or the Eason Jordan controversy would have been big news on the blogs, but the fact that they came in the same week-their virtual bloodletting separated by just a few days-marks a much larger sea change.
We now entering an age where journalists are so closely scrutinized by thousands of people with almost limitless time and limitless research power that the slightest misstep can end a distinguished career.