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A Los Angeles Times opinion column written by an Elon University assistant professor has fueled a firestorm of online commentary on the question: Are bloggers journalists?

Many authors of online Web logs beg to differ with Michael Skube, an assistant professor in Elon's School of Communications, and his assertions that blogs are no substitute for in-depth reporting by journalists.

"One gets the uneasy sense that the blogosphere is a potpourri of opinion and little more," Skube wrote in the Los Angeles Times piece, which was published Sunday.

"The opinions are occasionally informed, often tiresomely cranky and never in doubt," wrote Skube, a Pulitzer Prize winner. "Skepticism, restraint, a willingness to suspect judgment and to put oneself in the background — these would not seem a blogger's trademarks. But they are, more often than not, trademarks of the kind of journalism that makes a difference."

In the past few years, blogs have become a major component of the Internet, opening the medium to virtually everyone willing to set up a site. Topics range from pet interests to major stories, such as blogging from the Iraqi war zone.

Skube's essay lit up the blogosophere. Bloggers pointed to work they say shows the depth and context of good reporting, even if it was done by nonjournalists.

With input from other bloggers, Jay Rosen, an associate professor of journalism at New York University and author of the blog PressThink, pulled together a list of examples. It was published as a "Blowback!" on http://www.latimes.com Wednesday.

Among their examples: the Web site "Talking Points Memo," which pushed the Bush administration's firings of U.S. attorneys onto the national stage, and pet owners who shared information about tainted food that may have killed thousands of animals.

"It's just examples you can look at that show where blogging and journalism come together around reporting, meaning new information," Rosen said Wednesday, "against what can be exiled as opinion."

Contacted Wednesday, Skube said, "I said what I want to say."

"There's a place for gatekeepers, institutional safeguards," Skube said. "Editors will challenge you, as they should. They can be exasperating. They have behind them copy editors. They can be exasperating. ... Those editors will save you from mistakes, too."

Ed Cone, a Greensboro resident, writer and blogger who has been a part of the national conversation, said his problem with Skube's piece is his generalizations.

"A blog is like a yellow pad or a blank screen on your computer," Cone said. "You can write a grocery list on it; you can write a love note on it; you can write a news story that's thoroughly reported on it, or you can write an opinion piece.

"He sort of compared apples and oranges. And he didn't do his homework."

Chris Roush, an associate professor of journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, said some blogs are edited, but just because a blog isn't edited doesn't mean it's not journalism. There are good blogs that aren't edited, he said.

"But the people who are writing those blogs and reporting for those blogs are taking great care to make sure what they're writing and reporting is fair and accurate and balanced," said Roush, who is also a blogger.

"To me, the best blogs out there are just journalism being presented in another format. And just because it's not being printed, does that mean it's not respectable journalism? I'd debate that."

Contact Lanita Withers at 373-7071 or lwithers@news-record.com