MSM blogging policies

David Meerman Scott asks whether MSM journalists are one-way communicators and wonders about blogging policies at mainstream media outlets. Stevel Rubel tells us that CNET has a policy that requires blogging journalists to respond to comments. Rachel Gross who comments likes the idea that journalists have to defend their arguments or facts to their audience.

Journalists were used to being wooed.  By companies and PR people. In the old days ,"Letters to the Editor" were about the only means of consumer-generated feedback to an article in the paper or a magazine. Unless you were a famous print or broadcast journalist, you didn't need to respond to your readers/viewers. At least not directly. No need to explain why you wrote what you wrote. Now this has changed - especially for blogging journalists.

Blogging journalists are encouraged to engage in a conversation with their readers - and yes, even the PR folks. They might now have to explain and defend their work (as Rachel says). That must hurt. Actively commenting on other people's blogs, as John Cass suggested, must feel strange to many journalists who are not used to reaching out to Jane and John Doe.

If MSM policies include the requirement for blogging journalists to actively engage with the blogosphere, will be we get to the point where journalist comments for comment's sake? That is scary!