No one is disputing what Todd wrote. strike was incorrect.

Sorry, Todd

Bloggers, by their very nature, will write about their thoughts, feelings and opinions, One might call it an ongoing editorial. Journalists are (supposed to be) objective, and report the facts without interjecting their personal opinions. Easier said than done. I see no reason why a journalist can’t take a lead from a blog and develop it in to a story. They should give some credit to the blogger that gave them the lead.

No one is disputing what Todd wrote was incorrect. Besides that is not what this is about. It is about the Argus Leader giving credit where credit is due.

Todd mentioned that journalism is dying (in a round about way). IMHO, this to be incorrect. Journalism is going to a transition, adapting to this new medium called the World Wide Web. It not just print journalists, broadcast journalists will have to adapt as well. There is so much misinformation on the web, and personal opinions being taken as fact, it will take a journalist to help separate the chaff from the grain. (I think I just dated myself)

From what I can tell PP, Todd an few others are doing a great job. They provide a ‘news’ story then comment about it, giving their thoughts, feeling and opinions.

PP: 1 post
Argooos: 3 editions

I removed ONE comment on my blog about the Teabaggers, and I said I would if anyone denied that the event wasn’t political. That commenter reposted another comment and I have kept all his/her other comments subsequent, critical of me as they are. So, maybe you should get YOUR facts straight.

Also, the Argus and RCJ don’t print every letter to the editor they get. I’m not under any requirement to do so either, though probably 95% of the comments left on my blogs remain unless they are spam or completely koo-koo. And I did ban Sibby for a while because I was tired of his stuff but even he has posted recently and it’s there for all to read on my squarespace.com site.

I find it interesting that no one has said what I reported was incorrect, just a bunch of anonymous Wingers personally attacking Barry Foster (not my source) and myself. The Teabaggers got caught in a lie, pure and simple.

I also find it interesting that while many of PP’s readers act like big fat meanies in the comments to me and other liberals, PP and I truly respect each other, each other’s work, and we are good friends. I’m sure that drives some of you nuts. And we don’t agree on a whole lot except that we love our state, our nation, our democracy, and the free exchange of ideas. Maybe there’s a lesson there.

And as to pimping traffic? Guilty as charged. As much as blogging is a personal endeavor, it’s a lot more satisfying if it is being read rather than unread. Even by some of you who don’t seem to understand 87% of what I write. But I have hope for you and keep plugging away in the hopes that you’ll finally see the light. I’m a sunny optimist that way. To the 39% of you who are satire-challenged, that was a joke.

Have a nice Sunday. And help Schoenbeck cheer for the Twins. They need it.

Todd Epp
SD Watch
http://www.southdakotawatch.net

I hope somebody asks the Lincoln school administration and school board to check this out and see if it is true or not! I hope it is just somebody trying to be funny! But if this is true, I hope the South Dakota Professional Teachers Practices and Standards Commission takes a hard look at you pushing socialism on your unsuspecting students!

I just don’t think the South Dakota Professional Ethics for teachers allows you to do this.

I hope what was said about you isn’t true, not only for your sake but also your students!

I would really be disappointed in you if this turns out to be true!

That’s’ pretty lowdown, calling Todd the “L” word.

Even though it’s true that he’s a lawyer, it’s not polite to point that out, particularly if women or children might be present. – lol

Foster isn’t a credible teacher.

He claims at times to be a Democrat blogger but then frags his own party even when he holds a title in his state and county party organizations. He claims to be a journalist but, alas, a review of his blogs indicates he has a fixation of being something he clearly does not practice. Anon 11:13 is dead on: Calling a blogger a journalist is like calling a graffiti-ist a novelist. No offense PP but there is a professional and obvious difference.

Todd also is a lawyer.

It doesn’t cost anything and sure as heck won’t kill the Argus by sending a few readers online. It was probably an oversight on the reporters part rather than part of a darker plot.

Epp responded correctly with a good verbal thwapp to the side of the head to the reporter. If you don’t squeak about it, they sure as heck won’t include attribution next time.

I don’t know Epp, nor have I read his blog at all. His posts here have always seemed reasonable, informed, and intelligent. Labels are pretty meaningless these days as it’s more important how our officials actually vote.

I’m convservative, yet take the smoking ban for example. I am vastly in favor of it. I am sick to death of the smoke! I go out with my kids bowling… there’s no “voting with my feet” here as there are no other bowling centers nearby, and we are inundated with smoke!

The fact that my mother had Emphysema and spent the last few years of her life drowning with lungs full of fluid probably makes me a little more sensitive.

Back to Epp, good shot across the bow and keep on writing. PP, as always brotha, good work!

Fletch

Calling a blogger a journalist is like calling a graffiti-ist (is that a word?) a novelist

I bought my dead tree paper this morning. Blogging is nothing but a fad, and newspapers are here to stay.

I am not so naive to expect the Argus Leader to give me or any other blogger for that matter credit for handing them their jockstrap. Actually, the Rapid City Journal does the best job in it’s “Fives” column of covering we bloggers and their own blogs often cite and credit us.

Like the pointless Tea Parties, sometimes you have to do a stupid, futile act on someone’s part to try and make a point. And my point is that such behaviors on the part of the MSM are ultimately part of their own downfall.

Of course, they won’t listen to me, you, or anyone else. That’s why they are having problems.

In the meantime, didn’t we have a lot of fun for a day or so? Oh, and thanks for all the traffic to my blog!

Todd Epp
Stupid Futile Gestures Editor
SD Watch http://www.southdakotawatch.net

Was Epp the only one who knew the Lincoln kids were there? Of course not. They don’t need to credit Todd with anything. Does the Chicago trib aggrandize every scoop or event that happens in Peoria or Dekalb? What do you want us to do? Gather with torches and pitchforks? Send Troy down there to beat em with his book of famous quotes? Send Sibby into the newsroom to scream they are all a bunch of godless commies, and that he invented John Thune? Print media appears to be going the way of the dinosaur, but that doesn’t stop bloggers from linking and referring to it constantly. Todd, you put something out there, and it’s out there – free game. You and Pat are way to sensitive about this “I’m a journalist dammit” thing, and who scooped who.

When you stop spawning most of your non editorial content from kelo the argus and other media, then you can feign outrage over how the the Lincoln Band was unwittingly teabagged.

It’s the teacher’s mistake in the first place. Not the people who invited them. Where is the acountability?
It’s also an imaginary story. Liberals always look for something to harp about that just isn’t a big deal. “Oh my gosh! the world is going to end!”

At least protesters didn’t call Obama Hitler and other nonsense for continuing the war.

That said…I don’t blame you for being ticked at the AL for not crediting you. It was a scoop (such as it was) and it should have been attributed in some way.

I used to be a journalist. I make now bones that I’m not when I’m blogging. But I use many of the same techniques. And there’s one important difference. You know my biases. In fact, I’m proud of my biases. So reader beware. Filter as needed. And read other sources like PP to get a different point of view. That’s what I do.

You need to examine how often PP, me, and other bloggers are right on our stories. And compare that to the MSM. I’ll grant that they probably have a better ratio of right to wrong. But with their resources, they should. And it shouldn’t even be close among a newsroom full of professional journalists and a basement with a pajama-clad blogger in it. But it is. And the gap is narrowing.

Information wants to be free, both in terms of getting out and not costing. The Internet now makes that possible.

So, criticize me all you want. But there will be more Epps and PPs and Sibbys and Heidelbergers and Ehrismans in the future, for better or worse, like it or not. Might as well get used to it. (Or as Kim Mitchell might say, might as well go for a soda.)

And you have the ultimate power. If you don’t like what I write, don’t read my blog. No one has put a gun to your head to make you read it. Unless of course you put tin foil under your hat. Then I am making you read it.

Todd Epp
Media Whoredom Editor
SD Watch http://www.southdakotawatch.net

Maybe the Argus Leader should publicly announce their believes so they can have more freedom to print what ever they want. ( They do anyway)

Just because you are able to screech or scrawl it does not make it so. Proof pal. There is entirely too much noise from people who haven’t a clue as to what they are talking about, but it sounded good to them when it vomited from the mouth of a Limbaugh, a Beck or a Hannity.
Leave the slanderous bile to the professionals if you can’t back it up.

He won’t though.

Serious allegations. Better be able to back them up. But I’m guessing you’re too chicken to even try. Writing an anonymous comment on a blog comment doesn’t take much courage, bubba.

Epp

Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Good luck with that.

Epp

Todd Epp

I think there’s a thing called the school board. If you have a problem with Barry, talk to them. Barry is an excellent educator who encourages his students to be involved in politics if they so desire, whichever party. And he is an outstanding friend and person. And I don’t think being a Democrat is a crime, even in South Dakota.

Todd Epp

If only I had such power. Randell Beck and I aren’t exactly the best of pals.

If there is one thing that unites all of us in South Dakota, liberal, conservative, East River, West River, Bucks and Tanagers, Coyotes and Jackrabbits, Democrats and Republicans, it is our dislike of the Argus Leader.

Todd Epp
The Most Powerful Liberal in SD Media–Not Editor
SD Watch http://www.southdakotawatch.net