I like Jay Rosen. He's teaches at the NYU School of Journalism and, more importantly to me, is the author of PressThink, which is a blog mainly about journalism, but which often focuses of educating traditional journalists about blogging.

Trust Fall by Lauren Nassef (August 27th, 2008)

His most recent blog post is titled If Bloggers Had No Ethics Blogging Would Have Failed, But it Didn't. So Let's Get a Clue. (one of the reasons I like him are his witty, prolix, and often multi-sentential titles). It makes the following point nicely:

Dave Winer, one of the founders of blogging, says a blog is not defined by the software or features in the format (like comments) but by a person talking: "one voice, unedited, not determined by group-think." Blogging, he says, is "writing without a safety net" and taking personal responsibility for the words.

To trust a blogger is to trust in a person, talking to you, who is working without the safety net of an institution.

This weekend, Nick and I are going to be thinking about trust, which will be our topic next week. We invite you to do the same.