I tend to think that blogging and online reportage require a skill set and rhythm rather unique to the speed and nature of the medium. Just as not all book authors would be great newspaper writers, not all print reporters will prove great online voices. So I don't want to overstate the next point.Even so, it's meaningful that Matt Cooper, formerly of Time, Newsweek, Portfolio, and the Valerie Plame trial, has signed on to head Talking Points Memo's new DC blog. On the one hand, Cooper's involvement legitimizes TPM as a mainstream outlet. His presence is an MSM Seal of Approval on their reporting. A statement that a progressive outlook can improve good journalism, rather than impede it. But the more interesting exchange runs in the opposite direction: TPM legitimizes Cooper. They offer him something he can't get at the newsweeklies or the periodicals: A chance to participate in an outlet fluent in today's technology and constantly adapting to tomorrow's. An opportunity to change along with the industry, to figure out how the shifts in technology and medium can make journalism better, rather than trying to write against the tide. And it's meaningful, too, that this exchange is largely occurring at progressive outlets. As many conservatives have lamented in recent months, their side has not used the last few years to integrate ideas and technology and journalism. As such, there's a rapidly evolving progressive media sector that's quickly winning acceptance and wresting influence, but nothing comparable across the aisle. And as Pajamas Media showed, it's not the sort of thing that can be corrected overnight, or with a simple infusion of money, or with the presence of Joe the Plumber. TPM's expansion is the product of an increasingly impressive body of work. Cooper is no fool, and he's not desperate. He's moving to the online outlet that's likeliest to win a Pulitzer. There's just nothing of equal prestige on the Right. I REMEMBER WHEN TPM WAS COOL, MAN.
I tend to think that blogging and online reportage require a skill set and rhythm rather unique to the speed and nature of the medium. Just as not all book authors would be great newspaper writers, not all print reporters will prove great online voices. So I don't want to overstate the next point.Even so, it's meaningful that Matt Cooper, formerly of Time, Newsweek, Portfolio, and the Valerie Plame trial, has signed on to head Talking Points Memo's new DC blog. On the one hand, Cooper's involvement legitimizes TPM as a mainstream outlet. His presence is an MSM Seal of Approval on their reporting. A statement that a progressive outlook can improve good journalism, rather than impede it. But the more interesting exchange runs in the opposite direction: TPM legitimizes Cooper. They offer him something he can't get at the newsweeklies or the periodicals: A chance to participate in an outlet fluent in today's technology and constantly adapting to tomorrow's. An opportunity to change along with the industry, to figure out how the shifts in technology and medium can make journalism better, rather than trying to write against the tide. And it's meaningful, too, that this exchange is largely occurring at progressive outlets. As many conservatives have lamented in recent months, their side has not used the last few years to integrate ideas and technology and journalism. As such, there's a rapidly evolving progressive media sector that's quickly winning acceptance and wresting influence, but nothing comparable across the aisle. And as Pajamas Media showed, it's not the sort of thing that can be corrected overnight, or with a simple infusion of money, or with the presence of Joe the Plumber. TPM's expansion is the product of an increasingly impressive body of work. Cooper is no fool, and he's not desperate. He's moving to the online outlet that's likeliest to win a Pulitzer. There's just nothing of equal prestige on the Right. 
