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Is this you?

Frequent commenter Beau Dure, who writes with insight even though you may not always agree, does it again on Poynter's E-Media Tidbits.

Beau writes about "beneficial elitism" and "harmful elitism" as it pertains to journalists and bloggers. It's an important and knowing distinction.

...On (the Online-News) list, as in all forums, we sometimes fall into the trap of harmful elitism. We assume others 'don't get it.' 'Oh, that Roy Peter Clark guy? Yeah, he's just a newspaper guy. I don't have to listen to him.' We're prone to offering up easy answers for newspapers' ills, conveniently forgetting how wrong this list's conventional wisdom has been in the past.

Whether or not you like my proposed harmful/beneficial dichotomy, I think it helps to look at things through new frames. The 'blogger vs. journalist' meme didn't die despite Jay Rosen's best efforts, but at least we can step outside it every once in a while. 'Liberal vs. conservative' is utterly meaningless, given the fluidity of the terms. Even 'old school vs. new school' isn't particularly helpful. If we weren't a little bit of both, why would we be on this list?

I know it's me, sometimes.

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