** "Bloggers: Watchdogs or Windbags?"

The Times 'discovers' that bloggers are covering local government. It mentions the usual suspects like Foothill Cities and Claremont Insider. I do have one bone of contention:
"The website also has been critical of Pomona's high crime rate, saying that the local press ignores the issue."
I think Foothill mostly takes the press to task for taking what Pomona says at face value, whether crime or political decisions, rather than with a critical eye. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has made covering the crime issue in Pomona its bread and butter since a California HIghway patrolman was killed a few years ago. To say they aren't, or haven't, covered the high crime rate is wrong. It's nice to see the Times taking the same 'uncritical eye' path. And, by the way, isn't the Times the local press as well or is that beneath them?

* I had as my subject " LA Times slow news day" but Claremont Insider's was much funnier, so I used it instead.

** Claremont Buzz says about the subject hed: "Thanks for the credit for the tagline, but that came from the print edition of the LA Times article. We'd hate to be accused of trying to take credit for a Times editor's good work."