18 January 2002

Bloggery

I ran across a blogger today commenting that he/she had not been "covering" certain issues lately, giving the impression of being a major news outlet. I'm not going to rehash what I've written previously on that topic, but I can't help but be amused. I will add a couple of fresh comments. First, sometimes bloggers do break news (link via Romenesko), and I don't want to dismiss that possibility (even though this is more of an instance of a professional journalist who happened to have a news site that I wouldn't necessarily equate with a blogspot blog). Second, I wish I had thought of the Lovely Evelynne's response to my email query about what she had "covered" today:

Me, I covered my head with my hood on my "jawa" coat.

It's a black swing coat with a hood, and I romantically thought I looked like "The French Lieutenant's Woman" in it.

Ha ha ha ha.

* * * *

Related to the same topic, I read Tim Cavanaugh's piece (which seemed to have the intended effect of turning many of his targets apoplectic) and laughed out loud. It's a bit of a mean-spirited piece, and could have used some serious editing, but he captures the essence of a lot of what goes on in socio-political bloggery. The self-congratulation, the incestuous cross-linking, the casual dismissal of opponents, the constant praise of bloggers with whom one agrees (or who get more hits, and might crosslink!), the proliferation of the wrestling term "takedown" (which I have seen used more on blogs in the last few weeks than the entire time I spent growing up in a small town whose high school contended for the state wrestling championships every single year) -- that captures our little blogging culture, like it or not! As Jeff Jarvis astutely noted (if I may engage in a little cross-linking and constant praise of my own!),

[Y]ou have to give it to him that he does capture the blogsters' endearing habit of praising each other like ladies at a tea lunch (and then snipping behind each others' backs) as well as our utter dependence on real reporters in real media getting real facts for us to blog and blather about and, finally, our uncanny ability to spread like kudzu.

Yes, Cavanaugh said some nasty things, and seems mean-spirited. But how much time should anyone spend "taking down" such a person? And might one suspect that he intended to provoke just such a reaction? Let's face it -- some of what we bloggers do is easily caricatured. So ease up, bloggers. Laugh at yourself a bit.

[Posted @ 11:15 PM CST]