Houston paper going blog crazy

Welcome to Bloggerville, Bruce Westbrook.
The Houston Chronicle is going banannas for blogs.
There are now eleven of them.
Westbrook's blog, the newest in the Chronicle weblog stable, is about DVDs.

The next obvious step is to start letting some of their "news" reporter do blogs. Put some ground rules in place and let the reporters give the customers a "backstage" view on how and why they do their jobs. What's fun about it, what's frustrating about it. Oh, and just where do you get all those story ideas, Scoop?

There's lot of material there, believe me, and the reading public would find it interesting. No partisan stands, of course. Or, hell, take some partisan stands if you want. I don't care. Everyone's got opinions, even Johnny Objective Reporter.

If Johnny (or Jennie) can't set aside his/her opinions (whether stated in a blog or not) and write an "objective" news story (that means giving both sides to the story, if there are two sides; or, giving all five sides to the story, if there are five) then he/she shouldn't be in the newspaper business.

Fear not the blog, Mr. Cohen (pictured above). Bravely, into the breach, eyes fixed upon the horizon, necktie smartly cinched, loafers spotlessly shined, loins oiled for a fearless future.
[chron.com/specialfeatures]