HARTLAND

Welcome to Hartland, the ongoing news blog of Don L. Hart. These web logs have done amazing times during recent years. They've changed the face of the news media and, in the process, have humbled the likes of Dan Rather, Trent Lott, John Kerry and Jayson Blair. Perhaps we - you and I - can help in our own little way as we cut through the nonsense that is sometimes passed off as "news" and try to get at the truth.

Blogs (and their older cousins, the web sites) actually operate under a very old model. Back in the days of Benjamin Franklin, a master printer not only printed his own materials, but also researched, wrote, interviewed for, and edited the news. And now - hopefully for the better - that day has come again.

I am sure we have all been misled by so-called "journalists," people who have access to a public forum but fail to properly research their stories and editorials. Saddly, many of them write so poorly that we don't even notice that their writings lack objectivity, reek of bias, and are deficient in that most important of elements: facts. Such scribblers' relationship to true reporters - people who actually do their research before they write - is like that of poison ivy to a grape vine. One of them is beneficial while the other is simply an irritant.

Perhaps we can do something about separating the two during the coming days. We can at least try.