Chapomatic: Prine vs. Yon

Some interesting MSM v. Blogs kerfuffle over at Chapomatic, in the text and comments of these two posts:

• Michael Yon and Carl Prine (10/6/2005)
  

In which Chap takes journalist Carl Prine to task for slagging blogger Michael Yon in a public forum. Chap cc's both Prine and Yon on the article, and Prine (among others, myself included) responds in the comments.


• Welcome to the Back End of the Blogosphere (10/7/2005)
  

In which Chap responds to Carl Prine's lengthy response to the comments in the first post.

My take on the situation is more or less as follows:

Prine is a fine journalist, and writes good stuff that (a) I'd be proud to write and (b) enjoy reading, now that it has been called to my attention.

Yon is an excellent blogger who is offering a valuable perspective from Iraq that no one else, MSM or otherwise, is currently offering, and I not only look forward to each dispatch, I have supported him financially in the past and intend to do so in the future.

Despite Prine's skills and journalistic "credibility," he does not get what Yon is trying to do over there, and his criticisms betray a fundamental misunderstanding of what weblogging is and how it works. Prine seems to be arguing that there is one absolute standard for what good writing and reporting should look like, and that's nonsense.

I give Prine points for both grace and courage, however. Courage, in that he has answered a call from the Pennsylvania National Guard and is headed for Iraq himself in the coming months; grace, in that he came immediately to eloquently defend himself in the comments over at Chap's blog.

I *really* look forward to seeing Yon's response, if such is forthcoming.