Jay Rosen is doing great thinking on his PressThink weblog. I wonder how much reach it's getting off of the Internet?
In any event, his latest essay, "Spin Alley" digs into the sordid state of reporting after major political events such as debates. In short, reporters rush to a blessed area where campaign flacks all deliver prepared responses, regardless of what happened at the event! Invoking Shannon and Wiener, Rosen illustrates how Spin Alley actually reduces information rather than creating it, which is what journalists are supposed to be doing.
Even worse is the proprietary nature of Spin Alley. It's an area constructed by insiders on both sides. No outsiders, such as Ralph Nader, allowed. There are nominally good reasons for doing so, but this strikes Rosen, and me, as not particularly being in the public interest.
When I read Rosen's plea to blow up Spin Alley, I new immediately plenty of others would jump on weblogs as an alternative. Jeff Jarvis is the first one out of the box that I saw.
I'll add two tweaks though. There seems to be a concept of Grid Blogging kicking around, flash mobs of bloggers writing about a particular topic. Why not grid blog about a televised debate?
The second tweak is that those grid blogging have to aggregate into a well publicized feed. Part of the reason there's a Spin Alley is that it reduces the cost of getting quotes for good copy. An RSS feed could level the playing field a bit.
And just to make it even easier, all grid bloggers would have to do is use specific keywords in their title. Then, assuming they all have an RSS feed, a standing query feed could be setup at Feedster. Complete opt-in and openness at both ends.