Cooper's brother rips bloggers, says his brother deserves a presidential pardon

In a letter to the editor in today's Springfield News-Leader, Ryan Cooper, brother of former Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, rips into bloggers and says that his brother deserves a presidential pardon because "He's not a violent criminal and should be allowed to earn a living without this error of judgment ruining his future."

Cooper's brother, who is described as a copy editor for a local newspaper, takes issue with Fired Up Missouri blogger Howard Beale's contention that the presidential pardon is in the bag, but in doing so, he also rips into the entire blogosphere, using some of the same tired lines that traditional media folk use over and over:

Real journalists seek the truth. We try to avoid putting our personal views and interests into our stories. We never replace interviews with rumor or gossip. Unlike bloggers, we're held accountable for what we write.

Cooper also writes:

I encourage local bloggers to avoid using articles from sources known to contain false information. Lies are less believed when they aren't spread across the Internet. I discourage anyone from using blogs as a sole source of information.

Until bloggers join the ranks of the professional media, they just can't be trusted.

While I can certainly understand and sympathize with the situation the Cooper family faces, the traditional media faces the same lack of trust that the blogosphere faces and is often not held accountable for its stories or for their failure to cover certain stories.

The blogosphere needs to be treated in the same fashion as the traditional media. Bloggers, just like newspapers or television news programs, have to earn your trust, but dismissing them outright, as Mr. Cooper does (with a token favorable nod to a couple of former Missouri State students who helped expose the Dan Rather/Memogate scandal), is not a reasonable solution.
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In the letter, Cooper's brother indicates former Rep. Cooper will receive a sentence of 30 to 37 months in prison and a hefty fine.