This thumping of blogs at Wired misses the point:
Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug.
Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It's almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.
Nonsense. As was observed elsewhere, the definition of practical depends entirely on what it is one wishes to practice. Calculated Risk was started in 2005, picked the housing bubble as a focal point, and is now world famous. Closer to home, anyone interested in following the ins and outs of the Swift Boaters in 2004 or the Plame case from 2003 to 2007 was forced to rely on the amateur experts of the blogosphere - professional journalists banging out hundreds of words a day simply didn't have the time or inclination to research these topics (or any other) at great depth.
Well, we can make this place Blagoblog--I'm told it's very hard to get wire tap permission for a govt official and that it's likely it was obtained only recently and only after someone provided really hot info on Blag to the feds?
Who?
Someone on Blag's staff?
Someone on SEIU's?
Someone on Jesse jackson Jrs?
The possibilities are all delightful.
Posted by: clarice | December 09, 2008 at 02:27 PM
Written like a cut-rate journalist TM
Posted by: Soylent Red | December 09, 2008 at 02:48 PM
Not to mention blogs and global warming.
==========================
Posted by: kim | December 09, 2008 at 02:54 PM
Isn't the point that no one NO ONE reads newspapers anymore.
Posted by: Jane | December 09, 2008 at 03:15 PM
Editing comments might be the problem. Let the luciferians kill those.
Obama is going to prison. He's lying. The research isn't done because Plame was classified. The news couldn't say she blew herself or went Ames after he was arrested. Now it's Harvard HS and CIA and DoD and Obama and his birth and brothers on the payroll.
Posted by: KUE | December 09, 2008 at 03:52 PM
Bush could pardon Obama.
That'd be ... interesting.
-
Posted by: BumperStickerist | December 09, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Clarice: My money's on Rahm.
The author fails to realize that he is a member of the paid bilge.
Where would the Duke LAX players be without the efforts of one lonely blogger in Durham?
Totten and Yon have brought home the truth in Iraq and Afghanistan, on their own dime, that AP, Reuters, and CNN would rather stay hidden from us great unwashed forever - that our boys in uniform, despite the roadblocks thrown in their way, are doing the jobs they were sent to do.
Independednt bloggers are able to do the freelance journalism they do because they don't have an editor telling them what to cover, and more importantly, what not to cover.
Posted by: Crunchy Frog | December 09, 2008 at 04:04 PM
I guess the thread's up here: Warren Throckmorton points to Jake Tapper pointing to YouTube of Axelrod saying Obama talked directly with Blagojevich about Senate appointments.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | December 09, 2008 at 05:46 PM
The whole Wired piece makes two errors from the git-go: first, that mass readership and high Google rankings are the only reasons one might blog, and second, that mere bloggers can't compete with the amazing writing skillz of those pros. Or of the pros' prose.
On the first one, sometimes having a few readers is just fine: my translation of the Prajñaparamitahridayasutra is quite popular among the literally dozens of people a day that look for translations of the Prajñaparamitahridayasutra. It doesn't pay much, but that's not why I wrote it.
On the second one, having just seen Krugman quoted saying "me and my colleagues" and having read some of the prose atrocities promulgated by Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, I've got to say I think he isn't setting his goals high enough.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | December 09, 2008 at 05:52 PM
I am becoming rather fond of Twitter, though, I'll admit. (chasrmartin)
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | December 09, 2008 at 05:53 PM
Rahm knew which phone Blag used to make this pay to play calls? Hmm..
Rahm may have been hauled in to confirm a call or two though I'd not bet on it..I think it's someone on Blag's staff and they got him dead to rights so he squealed..It's the Fitzway.
Posted by: clarice | December 09, 2008 at 05:57 PM
Hey, the comments in Warren's link to the Gawker are a scream.
======================================
Posted by: kim | December 09, 2008 at 05:59 PM
Tom - And the very best blogger on the Plame affair was (and is) -- Tom Maguire. (As I have said, more than once.) I don't know of any journalists who even came close to your understanding of the whole affair.
Posted by: Jim Miller | December 09, 2008 at 07:00 PM
I used to blog until technical problems killed it. (I can't get access to my own domain until April 2009.) I'm not certain that I will blog again. It's a lot of work. Much easier to comment on other people's blogs.
But the reasons given by Wired are just another example of the arrogance of people who think their readers are hoi polloi. That alone might motivate to fire it back up once I can retrieve my domain name.
Posted by: Antimedia | December 09, 2008 at 08:18 PM
I still read newspapers - almost every day. There are lots of good stories that I would never see if I only read the news online because I usually just read the front page and quickly look through a few other stories. I actually think more people are going to spend less time online now - there are way too many blogs, too many "volunteers" inundating forums, too many people writing articles about the same thing, too many people who think insulting people is a form of journalism.
Also Gawker is the most vicious, nasty site around - they think they're "edgy" and "sardonic in a sophisticated way" but really they're just miserable people with don't have the talent to be hired anywhere else. Also their hatred of women isn't normal - it's not shocking, it's just pathetic. There are lots of gay men there and I have known many gay men who don't hate women but for some reason there are some who do, I don't know why, maybe it's not even hatred but contempt or disgust - I don't know what to call it. But Gawker has lots of them.
Posted by: nonetoday | December 09, 2008 at 08:40 PM
Jane: Isn't the point that no one NO ONE reads newspapers anymore.
Hey! I do!
And every day so do 13,373 of my dearest friends.
Posted by: sbw | December 09, 2008 at 08:53 PM
You know, I'm getting kind of worried. Given Fitzgerald's perchant for charging crime victims, I'm now seriously wondering if perhaps Blagojevich isn't innocent.
Posted by: cathyf | December 09, 2008 at 09:35 PM
Could be Cathy, Libby, Black; Fitz is
turning out to be what everybody thought Ken Starr was. He's got to be right one of these days.
Posted by: narciso | December 09, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Well, you know, one problem with the theory that The Haircut is a crook is that we have never seen any evidence that he is anywhere near smart enough for it.
Posted by: cathyf | December 09, 2008 at 10:12 PM
Spike Mullins.
========
Posted by: kim | December 09, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Why that's almost two one hundred fiftieths of a million, sbw. Surely they get passed around a little, too?
===============================
Posted by: kim | December 09, 2008 at 11:05 PM
crunchy: The one blogger was not in Durham, but Brooklyn! LUN] Otherwise your points are on target. As has been observed elsewhere (the Great Glenn?),I paraphrase: those who with intrinsic knowledge can blog. Those __________ (help me here - write for the NYT.
Posted by: Strawman Cometh | December 10, 2008 at 12:18 AM
Let's not forget Steve Diamond...
Posted by: rhodeymark | December 10, 2008 at 08:47 AM
Hmmmm. What to think. What to prefer. A president-elect who is so clueless that even though he came up through the corrupt Chicago/Illinois Democrat system he never observed or knew anything about any of it, or a president-elect who is part and parcel of same corrupt crew and because of the hyponotic effect he has had on the press has been protected from anyone investigating that. Difficult choice.
Posted by: bio mom | December 10, 2008 at 09:58 AM
FF11 is very famous now. My friends like to play it and buy FFXI Gil.
Posted by: FFXI Gil | January 07, 2009 at 04:09 AM
When you have LOTRO Gold, you can get more!
Posted by: LOTRO Gold | January 14, 2009 at 04:00 AM