"Snark, sass and destruction" - now with more snark
Admit it; you feel a void now that Christmas is over. How will we cope without a right-wing, journalistic Chicken Little act?
Thank you, Kathleen Parker, for Lord of the blogs.
Ms. Parker, the syndicated columist - the mercenary of the journalism world - has declared a war on bloggers. Alright - maybe not so much a war.
We can't silence them, but for civilization's sake - and the integrity of information by which we all live or die - we can and should ignore them.
My my, those are harsh words. Particularly harsh from the same woman who says this in the same column:
I've been a blog fan since the beginning, and have written favorably about the value added to journalism and public knowledge thanks to the new "citizen journalist"
Eh?
Within the column she does make a distinction between bloggers worth her time and bloggers that are a danger to civilization.
I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there - professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and other journalists who also happen to blog...
Sorry I'm not a professional philosopher. Still, how pragmatic of you.
...But we should beware and resist the rest of the ego-gratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.
There we go. Destruction is the least you should expect from a danger to civilization. (I might add that Ms. Parker is I hope referring specifically to political commentary blogs. I'd be curious to find the danger in, say, Shutterblog - tag!)
There's more.
They play tag team with hyperlinks ("I'll say you're important if you'll say I'm important) and shriek "Gotcha!" when they catch some weary wage earner in a mistake or oversight.
By the way, thanks to Dave at spacecoastweb for alerting me to this column. Tag!
This is starting to sound personal. Bring it home, Kat!
Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow. Some bloggers do their own reporting, but most rely on mainstream reporters to do the heavy lifting.
Blogs can do the heavy lifting sometimes too. Tag!
My guess is that there will be a lot of bloggers opining on your column, Kathleen. There's a good chance this was precisely the idea behind you writing this, you attention-starved minx you. Either way you should know by now that bloggers are probably the mainstream media's most reliable customer. You guys give us such priceless material.
Kathleen is smart enough to know the unreliable media argument is coming.
That a Jayson Blair of The New York Times or a Jack Kelley of USA Today surfaces now and then as a plagiarist or a fabricator ultimately is testament to the high standards tens of thousands of others strive to uphold each day without recognition. Blair and Kelley are infamous, but they're also gone.
Fair enough. I'll be the first to admit that traditional journalists have a much more verifiable batting average than the rabble.
Here's the most priceless metaphor in the piece.
Each time I wander into blogdom, I'm reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.
Supervision is precisely what a blog, even an irresponsible one, can and should be for the media. I'd like to think we can leave journalists to their own policing, but I have absolute no faith in them anymore. Had anyone outside the extreme left raised even the slightest question about why we were invading Iraq I might be willing to give credit. But even the networks now criticized for only reporting the bad in Iraq couldn't help themselves when they smelled the ratings of war. Strap on your boots and night-vision goggle - let's get embedded! It just so happens that a lot of the media now asking questions about this administration are probably just still chasing ratings. That doesn't mean their questions aren't without merit - I just doubt the intention.
The point is that while blogging can certainly be inaccurate it is still the expression of the populace, and most importantly a voice without a weekly paycheck. I doubt that most blogs save for wildly popular ones like Daily Kos (tag!) incur much in the way of living wages. It's amazing how liberating moonlighting can be.
Is it narcissistic? Sure (self-tag!). But doesn't that go for all writing? Calling yourself a "weary wage earner" doesn't change anything, other than cement the boohooness of the whole column. The idea behind bloggers eviscerating every little mistake journos make might be a little bit about Schadenfreude, but don't let the ego-tripping get out of hand. If people - including the media - take everything they read in blogs seriously, that's no fault of ours. Why not celebrate the addition of this still infant medium to the wide range of information available to all of us? Put it all together and come to your own conclusion. It's a beautiful thing.
That said, for our sake we should all ignore Kathleen Parker.
Snarky.
Goodbye small hands
Goodbye small heart
Goodbye small head
My soul is climbing tree trunks
And swinging from every branch
- Sleater-Kinney, "Get Up"
Posted by Joel at 12/28/2005 08:12:00 PM
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