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Raul Ibanez Fires Back at Blogger Over Rumored PED Use/The Blogger Journalist Handbook

Phillies outfielder, Raul Ibanez, is up in arms over a blogger's suggestion that Ibanez's great stats thus far are due to the use of performance enhancing drugs. I don't know if Ibanez has used steroids, nor do I wish to opine on the subject. Here's what he had to say:

"I'll come after people who defame or slander me," he said Tuesday night before the Phillies played the New York Mets, according to the report. "It's pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there."

"Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen."

As a blogger, I don't try to take the place of a journalist. I don't try to pretend I am one. Because I am not. I don't have nearly the training, access, or discretion that journalists do. I am merely someone providing thoughts on the world at large. And there have been times I've been controversial. But where is the line, between blogger and journalist? How can we set up guidelines, so that bloggers don't step their way into the journalistic realm? How do we, as bloggers, differentiate between a factual, sourced, reported story, rather than something from our own mind? Because, in essence, the blogger in the Raul Ibanez case did not probe sources, did not try to cultivate information. He just looked at stats and created a conclusion.

I believe that there is a place for bloggers and journalists to share a happy medium. While the journalists have the experience, access, and discretion, the blogging field should not be diminished, just because we don't write for a newspaper. At the same time, bloggers shouldn't feel entitled just because we have a space to share our thoughts. I'm going to list sort of a Blogger-Journalist handbook. It will outline what I believe is necessary for blogs and newspapers to coexist.

1. Journalists have to acknowledge that we exist.

Yes, we're here, and not going anywhere. The 'citizen' journalist will be here to stay. With the advent of instant technology, Twitter, Facebook and more like them, anyone can write anything. And while we don't have the experience, we have opinions, and a lot of them are valid and worthy for discussion.

2. Bloggers should not feel entitled

I have a blog. I pay a hosting company to host it. But I, and others like me, cannot feel that we have the ability to sway the masses just because we have a blog. We have to learn nuance, when to blast someone, when to keep our commentaries reserved, when to accuse someone of cheating and when not to. The best solution? A boot camp for bloggers, where we learn about reporting stories, sourcing, discretion. I've had to learn on the job, and it's hard. It's hard to decide what's appropriate for posting, how it should be written. If we could take a boot camp, our ability to convey a story will be much improved.

3. Understand our boundaries: work together

Let's face it: Newspapers are dying. With the current economic climate, the advent of free newspapers on the Internet, not as many people are buying a paper. It's likely that all newspapers at some point will be digital. And, in essence, journalists become bloggers. They have a forum online to speak. Yet, what they have that we don't, is a reporter's ability. And while we have to work together, we can't blur the lines. I'm not going to report facts on a story. Bloggers should write what they feel, write about issues, write deep, probing commentaries on what they think is important. And while reporters can do the same, that have to be reporters first and foremost, not commentators. While they report facts, we make our opinions known. While they dig for sources, we react. There is a fine line, and it should not be crossed. If you are a commentator, a Jason Whitlock or a Dan Wetzel, you can speak your mind on stories. There is a line between reporting and commentating. Bloggers are on the commentary side. And we should stay there.

If there is anything to learn from this Ibanez case, is that bloggers have to understand where we fit.  We may be the majority, but right now, we have to play by the minority's rule. And that's not to say we don't have a voice. We do. And it should be recognized. We have amazing bloggers who provide the world with great content. Hopefully this site does the same. If we are ever to be respected as a field, if we are ever to recognized as a voice in the world of journalism, we have to know our place. We can't speculate that Raul Ibanez used steroids, just because his numbers are inflated. If a reporter talks to sources and backs it up with factual information, it can be reported. And until we have that access, we can just talk about it. It's frustrating, because I want to dig deeper into my stories, talk to people in the know. But I can't. So unless I have hard, concrete information, I'm left to my opinions, and bloggers cannot be in the field of defamation. We can talk about the Magic winning Game 3, but we should not talk about Raul Ibanez potentially using steroids. I know there will be bloggers who disagree.  They'll say that we have every right to conjecture about personal lives. I don't think we do.  We wouldn't want people conjecturing about our personal lives, and since we don't have that access, those sources, we can't just guess. And if we want to be respected, we have to lay off. For now.

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