In light of the Dan Rather "blogger brush-off" as I'll call it, where he blames anonymous individuals in their pajamas for questioning his unquestionable credibility in the forged Bush-Guard document debacle, I find it somewhat interesting that Ms. McGinley is effectively "voice blogging" live on television, almost definitely in her pajamas, and in this case the anchor is hanging on her every word.

Is Kelly more reliable, more believable, or more effective than a professional field reporter who might be stationed at a location a few hundred yards from where she is? She's certainly credible, since the roads she travels daily are at this moment made unsafe by hurricane Ivan, and her choosing to ride out the storm means she has a first-hand story to tell. Objectivity goes out the journalistic window, but nobody is questioning the fact that Ivan is there.

So here's the question: is this another incremental step that lends credibility to on-site, amateur, real-person reports about important events? Does the first-person interpretation of events heard or read from someone who sacrifices objectivity for some potential insight give [more] legitimacy to such accounts?

With the proliferation of high-resolution, video-capable cellular phones and the possibility of 3G-or-better wireless network deployment on the horizon, could the Max Headroom concept come to pass, replacing the bulky BetaCam camera with a pocket-sized uber phone? We've already seen that the jumpy, pixelated video phone transmissions from embedded reporters in the Iraq "war" were as gripping as any HDTV image might be. Imagine an Iraqi insurgent whipping out his camera phone and moblogging a little of the action, and Al Jazera picking that up and running with it, or perhaps calling him and getting a live feed right up to the explosion.

I hesitate to go here, but how long until we see a thumbnail-sized video of an ill-fated bus ride in Jerusalem, taken from inside the bus? This is a large digression, so I'll bring this post to a close by returning to the original assertion, that we are-- in my opinion-- moving onto the slippery slope where everyone is a potential source of news, with credibility assigned on the fly. Either way, I hope Kelly's roof stays on the house...