Conservatives at CPAC: We need fewer pundits and more journalists on the right

National Review blogger Jim Geraghty, during a Saturday panel, told attendees that with all the tools available for reporting online or starting a blog, it’s now a “golden age for conservative journalism.” Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, seated next to him, said that conservatives need to increasingly make the transition from commenting “on the news being gathered by other people to gathering the news ourselves” — even if that means simply picking up the phone to confirm a quote or get a statement. “We need to be used to going out and committing random acts of journalism,” Morrissey said…

“We are trying to do objective reporting,” Goldfarb said. “We are not objective in what we cover but we are going to be objective in how we cover it. And look, at the end of the day, when you have the facts on your side, sometimes they just can’t ignore you anymore.”…

“You want to really make sure you come in as a reporter,” National Review political reporter Robert Costa said during a panel on breaking into conservative journalism. Costa said he learned a lot about journalism by interning for PBS’s Charlie Rose, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, and regional newspapers outside Philadelphia. He also passed along some advice that a National Review editor once gave him: you’re not going to be William F. Buckley, the magazine’s founder and an icon of the right.

“A lot of people come into conservative journalism thinking they can be George Will or Charles Krauthammer or WFB,” Costa said. “That was the best advice to take me down a notch and to say, ‘go out into the field, learn, go to Capitol Hill, put your microphone in a Congressman’s face and try to get some stories.'”