About a week and a half ago on Sunday Night Horror my guest was Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times and TampaBay.com.  He recently panned “Black Devil Doll” on his TampaBay.com’s “Reelin’ Through the Years” blog, which you can read here.

Immediately in the interview Steve said he didn’t think he “panned” the film he just wrote a blog about the trailer, not a formal review. Whatever you may want to categorize it he was still harsh on the film.

Persall and myself had a very civil debate and I have to say I enjoyed it. During it I quoted Mark Twain, Voltiare and even George Carlin. Persall, who’s Father operated a Drive-in Theater is a big fan of horror and b-movies. However, he felt that since the film could be labeled “racist” — it shouldn’t play in his community. I felt the idea of that is selective censorship and you can make up your own mind by listening here. HorrorMovieFans.com writer Kelsey Zukowski also gives a “Drag Me to Hell” review and at one point the debate gets a bit heated.

Steve’s defense of his criticism of “Black Devil Doll” not being a review but being a blog really got me thinking about our new age of media. In the old days things were clear — newspapers had news section and newspapers had opinion/editorial sections. The internet has changed things. The internet has blogs, articles, vlogs, podcasts, internet radio, social networks, wikis, youtube videos, bulletins, message board forums, movie databases, and more. It’s not easy to decipher when an author is reporting news, doing commentary, editorializing or just engaging in conversation.

As blogs and articles become one in the same authors will continue to use the defense Persall did. Ryan Rotten of ShockTilYouDrop, told me on Sunday Night Horror that in the past he has approached another website when he thought their reporting was questionable and had the website use the blog excuse (listen here  at the 66:20 mark and see Rotten with Mr. Disgusting and Spooky Dan below).

“There’s this whole debate with everybody online now about what’s a blog and what’s a news website. I think it’s funny people call ShockTillYouDrop.com a blog. It’s not a blog it’s a news site. I don’t throw opinion into every news item,” Rotten said. Rotten continued “There’s some great examples of some blogs. Fear.net’s site is blog style and I actually called them on something regarding Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 and they took a slam towards us. And they said we’re a blog so the writer can say really what he wants.” Rotten wasn’t upset. “I said okay, I can respect that but we were right (laughs).”

Truth be told the blog defense doesn’t hold much merit for Persall on the surface. Nearly all websites actually use the blog format to post news as it’s the easiest, quickest and most sound way to upload articles. Where he can be defended is Persall’s piece on “Black Devil Doll” is on his “Reelin’ Through the Years” Blog and is in a separate area from the reviews and news section on the site. However where he runs into trouble is after the multiple blogs he wrote and his interview on the HorrorMovieFans.com Radio Network his objectivity is compromised. That is a problem because when he writes an article on Black Devil Doll, like here, his credibility can be called into question. The point is his objectivity shouldn’t be compromised until after he’s reviewed the film. Persall has become part of the story.

Not picking on Steve. He was a fun guy to discuss the film with and a lot less snooty and prude-ish than I expected when first reading his blogs. By becoming part of the story though, nobody can really take any news or reviews he does on “Black Devil Doll” seriously. Part 2 will touch on that some more.

To listen to the entire episode with Steve, click here.