Major media outlet once again says that blogging will not transform the media. Denies self-interest.

The Pew Report on the blogosphere, which has been covered herein previously, is the topic of a Nick Lemann article in the current New Yorker. Once again, the gist of the analysis is that rumors of the demise of the mainstream media at the hands of citizen journalists have been greatly exaggerated. What the blogging world does well, Lemann points out, is serve as a forum for voicing opinion. Indeed, most of the blogs out there are places for people to muse on, well, just about whatever. As such, these citizen journalists are an addendum to the mainstream media, not a transformative force. (And Lemann seems to question, at times, if it is a very worthwhile addendum: "Even at its best and most ambitious, citizen journalism reads like a decent Op-Ed page, and not one that offers daring, brilliant, forbidden opinions that would otherwise be unavailable.") What citizen journalists don't really do--and hence why they will not really change the way that we receive our news--is provide any original reporting. Sure, there are the Internet-only scoops that come from a citizen who happens to be standing by when an event goes down. But when it comes to full-on investigative reporting, Lemann says, it's still the pros that are providing our news. Case in point: Daily Irk, your leading source for re-packaged news.