Of course, it takes a few years of experience and making some painful mistakes to learn that, and not just applying vaseline to head to make it fit through the office doors in the mornings.

Using Twitter, Facebook, his iPhone and blog to communicate and build connections doesn’t make Renai some sort of uber-geek that doesn’t follow the principals of so-called “old-fashioned journalism”

He’s just using whatever mediums are available to him to keep the bastards honest, which is after all what it’s all about. The DM capability of Twitter is just another way for sources to leak information. Let’s not confuse the medium with the message.

The only thing unique about Twitter is that it can add transparency to the conversation between journalists and their sources, businesses and their customers, and anything that adds transparency is good for journalism IMHO

> At the end of the day great journalism is not about comment it is about facts and > journalists having the contacts to firstly establish the facts and then publish them > without being sued.

> A classic example is the fake email affair now gripping Canberra.

Where was the great journalism? Wasn’t the Daily Telegraph journalist duped?

Twitter doesn’t mean the death of traditional reporting but it may be a useful information channel.

The blurring of the lines between “facts” (always a tricky term) and interpretive opinions and refusal to admit fault in only the most extreme cases might be where traditional media started down a slippery slope, no? Just saying…

If “your writer” (as I believe you used to call yourself on your blog) was out there breaking stories about politicians stealing from the people who pay their wages or if you were uncovering deep and dark secrets about companies polluting the land etc then I would applaud your stance – but you write about tech and you are one of the most egotistical journalists I have ever met.

Your reputation in the journalism and pr ciclres isn’t that great because of your ego, your aloof nature and your ability to think you hold some great place in the world..

Twitter isn’t the death of journalism, the death of journalism will come from people believing they are more important than the stories they are writing.

I agree with you that “At the end of the day great journalism is not about comment it is about facts” but it’s even better when they are your own facts and research and stories, not ones you’ve ripped off from hundreds of other journalists.