Review on James Rainey's "How Mayhill Fowler got online scoops on Obama and Bill Clinton" (LA Times, 6/7/08)

It baffles me; yet again, Mayhill Fowler got a great scoop, though she is "a self-described 'failed writer' and amateur Web journalist."Indeed, "an unpublished novelist 'with absolutely no journalism training' can alter the national debate."

Fowler attributes her successful scoops to dropping the 'journalist' from citizen journalist. I have to say, Fowler is bold. She doesn't care about thousands of angry emails, because she has nothing to lose. And while Fowler definitely acted as an ordinary, American citizen when talking to candidates like Bill Clinton, the way in which she made the effort to break the story and let the public know what candidates like Clinton are really like, is what makes her a journalist. 

Review on James Rainey's "'Citizen journalist' broke Obama story" (LA Times, 4/15/08)

The Huffington Post, and other websites alike, are a great outlet for bloggers and citizen journalists with big stories to get noticed. Mayhill Fowler did exactly that. While her ethics are shaky, she found a great story and did what she thought she had to do as a journalist.

Since The Huffington Post is one of the most visited websites, Fowler's story got picked up, and support for President Obama went down (to some extent). However, Fowler didn't gain that much support either. She was challenged as a real journalist, and her ethics in reporting were put into question. Was it ok that she went to Obama's event that was deemed "closed" to mainstream journalists, but then wrote about it as a "citizen journalist?" Maybe if she had posted it to her own blog, and then it was picked up, but even I am questioning if what she did is right or wrong.

Either way, Fowler uncovered an important story that mainstream journalists would not have otherwise covered. And maybe that's why her ethics don't matter, because she technically was not employed as a journalist, anyway.