After this morning’s big non-event, there wasn’t much Libby related stuff to talk about during lunch. The discussion at the table I was eating at veered from talking about judges and their clerks to some journalists talking about the old days of the AP versus UPI and what it was like trying to submit stories from Saigon over painfully slow wires.

This led to discussions of covering Hurricane Katrina and posting stories from the former Soviet Union. I was the one blogger in the discussion. Mostly, I sat quietly and listened. When I did speak up, some of the traditional journalists warned about writing too much about what goes on in the media room. That area is traditionally off the record. One thing that I learned in politics is that nothing is ever truly off the record. Nonetheless, I do try to be circumspect about what I say. I am generally not quoting reporters directly, and if I do quote them, I am careful not to make attributions.

Instead, I want to capture the flavor of what is going on. Part of that, which gets lost too often some blogs bashing of the mainstream media, is that the journalists, the reporters covering these and other events are not drones who are part of some big media collective. There are some great journalists here, who love their craft, who love the truth and want to see it reported. It is great to see that passion and I sometimes wonder what happens to it in the writing, editing and distribution of the stories.

Perhaps this is part of the beauty of good blogging, the ability to be immediate and write with a perspective that traditional journalists don’t get to portray as often. Despite the fighting for desk space, let’s hope that the mixing of bloggers and traditional journalists will result in deeper appreciation of both aspects of reportage