The Perils of Bloggers Trying to Break News

Earlier today, an blogger named Jose Aguirre (posting under the pseudonym "Bronx Bomber") made a bold announcement on MLBNewsOnline.com:

Embattled former Giants slugger Barry Bonds has entered into formal contract negotiations with the Yankees, and a consummation of the deal is anticipated forthwith, a confidential clubhouse source told MLBNewsOnline.com.

Who knows? Maybe it's true. Maybe all the reporters whose sole job responsibility is to build inside connections so as to stay on top of scoops like this really are out in the cold. After all, as the site later clarified, the tip came from "a source within the Yankees organization, though not through conventional channels." If this turns out to be true, MLBNewsOnline.com will shoot to blog superstardom.

Or maybe there's no truth to the rumor at all, and perhaps MLBNewsOnline.com pulled the stunt just to see how big of waves it could create. After all, when you're an anonymous writer on a mostly anonymous blog, there's no shame in being wrong -- just switch screen names and start from scratch, and no one will hold it against you for being yet another black stain on the blogosphere's seemingly endless climb to respectability.

But there's also a third possibility. Maybe the tip is correct, but if the talks end up stalling and falling apart, everyone will still assume the blog made it up in the first place. Guys like Peter Gammons can afford running with dubious tips not only because he's a member of the mainstream media but also because he has decades of correctly calling most enough of his scoops to build a reputation.

So what's a blogger to do? Sit on whatever scoops they happen to stumble upon until a member of the established media gets it first? Run with what they have and hope for the best? Connect a mainstream writer with the source and hope for a hat-tip in the article?

I'm not sure there is a right answer. Bloggers with good intentions swing and miss all the time. And while the same can be said for some members of the mainstream media (I'm looking at you, Peter Vecsey), swinging and missing on a story like this hurts the entire blogosphere in the eyes of naive readers not yet capable of making a distinction between blogs with a track record and blogs without.