The Little Rock media/blogging community’s three-week long navel-gazing session came to a head last night when Channel 7’s Kristin Fisher and Arkansas News Bureau’s John Brummett met up at the Arkansas Press Association Building for a debate over the merits of new vs. old media.  The two have traded barbs in blog posts and columns lately and a good crowd of local media people showed up for the Biden vs. Palin of local news debates.  Brummett was the seasoned veteran with years of experience going up against the young, rising star who’s turning heads with tweets on Twitter and her live web cam. 

Brummett made some thoughtful comments about new media and offered an apology.  He once had written he would not lend his credibility and experience to attract viewers for Fisher, comments he said were “arrogant and haughty.” 

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“I am arrogant and haughty, but you shouldn’t act that way,” Brummett said, drawing a big laugh from the crowd.  Fisher defended her “Choose Your News” segment on KATV as a way to reach out to younger news consumers and jump-start an ailing TV-news business.   

Take a look at our video player for brief interviews with Brummett and Fisher on what points they were trying to get across, and what they’ve taken away from the experience.

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— Gerard Matthews

PS — The Arkansas Project gave the session coverage worthy of a G-8 summit and David Kinkade’s report also links to other bloggers with video, etc.

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PPS — Old-style journalism here, I admit, posting something almost 24 hours after an event commenced and long after ninety-leven other bloggers had posted words, photos and video.

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