Mainstream media? Hardly!

Bloggers would love nothing more than to take a seat at the table of mainstream media. If you ask some of them, they're already there.

I've got some bad news for them: not only are they not at the table, they can't even get a reservation.

For all the self-aggrandizement that goes on among bloggers, their main contribution to journalism at this point seems to be trashing journalism. That would be fine, if they offered an alternative.

Instead they want to be taken seriously when they offer nothing more than commentary, fact checking and poorly-researched speculation on stories being reported by the real media.

At Technorati, a website that classifies what's popular among bloggers, the hot topics on Sunday were the Reuters doctored photo controversy, the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, and the hit movie "Snakes on a Plane."

All three of these are mainstream media. Bloggers can't be taken seriously until they provide original content and research. So far the best they've done is Gawker Stalker, a map that let's you report where you've seen a celebrity.

Their claim that newspapers are dying is also greatly exaggerated. If every new media killed an old one, that wouldn't leave much room for radio or magazines, both of which found ways to survive in a changing society.

It's time for bloggers to quit puffing their chests and start working on something useful. Only then will people think of the internet as more than just a place to see reporting done by TV stations and newspapers.