For the past few years, CNN has had a track record of dissing blogs on their Website, even as those same blogs were fact checking CNN within an inch of its life (see: Jordan, Eason).

They've since moved on to dismissing them on the air as well, as Patrick Ruffini writes:

I have to say, I find most cable news segments on blogs to be just incredibly dumb.

By far the worst offender is CNN's Inside Politics, and its' "Inside the Blogs" segment. How do they report on the fun, exciting, technologically-savvy world of blogging? By having two on-air reporters read printouts from selected blogs to each other. Bloggers' opinions are treated as a world onto themselves. No critical comment is ever made. The worst part is that it's disturbingly similar to way viewer e-mail is presented on air: uncritically, as just another voice in a loud cacophony, and oh! -- aren't we special for airing our viewers' e-mail and blogs?

If you think segments like this are a good thing, ask yourselves this: would David Brooks and Paul Krugman be treated like this? When their writings are put on air, it's to make news, it's to challenge politicians on a statement they just made. Bloggers should strive for the same level of credibility and influence. It's all too easy for MSM to think of the blogosphere as the yapping chihuahua, as a world onto itself with its own internal validity, but with little or no impact on the real world of commentary and opinion.

MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast at least gets it somewhat right, by putting bloggers on air, encouraging real cross-pollination and news-making from blogs to cable news.