Larry O’Connor, from bigjournalism.com, questions whether or not Thomas Paine should be considered the first blogger or journalist. Today, the distinction between bloggers and journalists is getting murkier with the major rise of blogs in this era of citizen journalism. O’Connor writes that in the eyes of New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Judge, Anthony J. Parrillo, Bloggers are by no means legitimate journalists. According to Judge Parrillo, “There is, of necessity, a distinction between, on the one hand, personal diaries, opinions, impressions and expressive writing and, on the other hand, news reporting.” Thus, by Judge Parrillo’s standards, it is fair to argue that Paine’s “Common Sense” is not journalism, but rather a form of blogging, perhaps the first type of writing that blogs can be traced back to. According to O’Connor, Paine’s parchment and printing press is equivalent to modern day blogger’s broadband Internet and keyboard.
However, it could also be argued, as it is, that Thomas Paine was indeed America’s first journalist in that his work could be considered editorial work- almost every newspaper has an Opinion/Editorial section, right?
The number one goal of journalists is to report the truth. The truth must be exposed whether it be gruesome or not. So, if Paine was reporting the honest truth as he saw it, in my opinion, his work could constitute as journalism.
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