I’m sorry that I couldn’t make it.

Judy Hill is knowledgeable about things, but I wouldn’t exactly call her an “expert.” I’m a little skeptical of sunny descriptions we give people just because they have done this or done that. Judy is an expert in writing good prose, and entertaining audiences (I agree, I am always entertained by her columns). Steve Otto is the same, as I hate missing his column.

And you bring up good points about how newspapers overall are missing out on great online opportunities. They have reporters doing blogs and sharing opinions, when in reality, no one cares what the reporter’s opinion is. There are great ways for reporters to USE blogs, including things like providing more depth for stories that they may not have had in print or on TV or whatever medium they are using. That includes additional quotes, additional ideas, even add more people.

It’s like these newspapers and such lose sight on what is the true power in blogging. It’s providing a medium that is easy to access, that can add more detail, that can even serve as a watchdog. That is why blogs like Sticks and others are successful, and why newspapers — outside of a few notable exceptions some of you have mentioned here — fail miserably, and call into question ethical and integrity concerns.

Sadly, people like Gil Thelen wouldn’t know journalism if it conked them on the head.

Judy Hill’s an expert in that she’s been covering the same beat for a very long time. She’s who I would go to if I needed an opinion on a charity or wanted to know about community happenings around here. As for Thelen, I stated the titles (without adjectives) that would answer the questions of what he would know about journalism and why he would be included on a panel about bloggers. (And, I do think the panel would have been better if more community bloggers had shown up, providing a more diverse view on the topic.)

As far as comments go, yours are well thought out and show a command for spelling and grammar. They lack vulgarity and ads for Viagra, so in my opinion, you’re one of the better commenters out there.

Actually, I do read Ruth, Ross, Hill, and Otto. I print out Hill’s blog for my mother because she doesn’t have a computer. I also read columnists like Leonard Pitts, Howard Troxler, and Dave Barry. And, I read The Trib and the Times almost every day. If you count The Oracle as a daily, I read three dailies almost every day. And, when I can, I read Creative Loafing and Reax. I also go through my Google feed which supplies me with news from The Telegraph, The Guardian, Salon, and the New York Times. Oh, and the The Trib, the Times, The Oracle, and Loafing are all inserted into my noggin in the old print format, because I enjoy reading the news on paper. I actually found Sticks because I was looking for blogs from Judy Hill and Ross after The Trib let them go, because I see them as experts in their field and like to read quality columns.