Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner, originally uploaded by Rob Bluey.

Washington Examiner senior White House correspondent Bill Sammon has some good advice for bloggers: quit the naval gazing and start reporting. Sammon spoke at the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Bloggers’ Briefing today about his new book, “The Evangelical President: George Bush’s Struggle to Spread a Moral Democracy Throughout the World.”

His advice wasn’t meant to offend bloggers. When asked how bloggers could have a greater impact on politics and media, Sammon was quite frank: Focus more on reporting and less on punditry. He encouraged bloggers to use the same tools available to the traditional press corps to do their jobs better. Not only will they have more credibility, but they’ll also make more news.

Sammon spent most of his time talking about the White House press corps and the liberal bias of the media. He said President Bush faces three antagonists: foreign terrorists, Democrats in Congress and the mainstream media. Sammon cited the incredible amount of coverage devoted to Dick Cheney’s shooting accident last year as a classic example of how the journalists turned the story into an “unseemly spectacle.”

When Sammon asked Bush about media bias, the president pointed out that the people who cover him don’t support him, as John Tierney’s report for the New York Times in 2004 showed. (Washington-based reporters supported John Kerry by a 12-to-1 margin.)

Bloggers are increasingly taking a more aggressive role with reporters, Sammon said. He cited his recent question to Bush about the infamous MoveOn ad attacking Gen. David Petraeus. Bush’s answer that the ad was “disgusting” prompted liberal bloggers to accuse Sammon of asking a “softball question.” Sammon found the criticism surprising given that nearly ever politician in Washington was being asked the question.

Dave Weigel wrote about Sammon on Reason Hit & Run and Joe Mansour has a recap on TechRepublican.