Regarding TVA's Christmas disaster, big media was exactly where it's always been on community casualities: behind the curve

R. Neal wades into a debate between blogger Joe Powell and journalist Michael Silence. He grants Knox News its place as first of the mainstream media to the story, but reminds journalists of the actual social and mainstream media time line. Bloggers were all over the story first and framed it before the state, coal industry, and news corporations could spin it innocuous. As he points out, News 2's Christian Grantham was also exceptional because he was one of the few mainstream media reps who was asking the direct, critical questions early and publicizing the digging that bloggers were doing to get behind TVA CEO's management of perceptions. Generally speaking, journalists owe bloggers a lot more credit than they usually give (exceptions noted).