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Pot - Kettle: Black

Jeff Taylor | 11.18.2003 8:26 AM

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Here's a critique of blogs that reads exactly like a blog right down to the punctuation and the abortively pedantic tone.

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Jeff Taylor is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. chthus   22 years ago

    This reads more like a pathetic ad for her blog (sorry, website, I'm sure there's no blog there) and those she really likes.

    "The more blogs link to each other, the more hits they all get; enough hits and a cyberstar is born. (Okay, color me envious: I don't even know if Google can find my Web site, not that anyone's looking.)"

    I wonder if the Post made Jenny buy ad space for her op-ed.

  2. Sam I Was   22 years ago

    "Right down to the punctuation"? What are you talking about? I didn't notice punctuation mistakes or any of the other kind of usage errors that plague the blog world.

    I thought her column was right on. I'm completely bored with insular atmosphere that's taken over the blog world, with its trigger-finger sensitivity, huffy defensiveness, and kneejerk railing against the "media establishment." I've completely abandoned that whole Instapundit-"Vodka Pundit"-Charles Johnson axis. It just got so laughably pompous and full of itself -- "hubris" is probably the right word -- and increasingly out of touch with reality.

    Note to Glenn Reynolds et al.: The New York Times drives me crazy too, but the professionals at the New York times -- and at every other major media institution in America -- have skills that are far beyond anything you're capable of. This notion that the "playing field is now level" is just plain goofy. Just because Glenn Reynolds can now write publicly, and the New York Times writes publicly, does not mean they're equals. That's like saying Michael Jordan and I have the same skills because we both wear shoes.

    I keep wondering when Glenn Reynolds is going to figure out that he's not actually the revolutionary he fancies himself to be. A reality check is long overdue for the blogosphere. And this Washington Post columnist nails it.

    Hit & Run has the right idea: present some ideas, present some links, and let people talk about 'em.

  3. JAT   22 years ago

    Sam:

    I didn't mean that there were errors, just all the (phrases) and the -- wait -- phrases. Trust me, copy editors hate that. And truth be told, there are cogent anti-blog points to be made (you made them - wink) but this piece does not make them.

  4. chthus   22 years ago

    Jenny needn't worry about all the boring blogs, soon the UN will be regulating the internet to insure that all blogs are exciting, original and unlinked.

    http://washingtontimes.com/world/20031117-113002-7678r.htm

  5. Van Veen   22 years ago

    The abortively pedantic tone, eh? Leveling snide remarks at writers you happen to disagree with may be 'de rigueur' in the blogosphere, but it certainly doesn't avail you of sympathy from valuable allies. What enhances the risibility of this thoughtless and reflexive reply is its inadvertent roboration of Jenna's thesis: bloggers are smug, self-righteous pricks who have transfigured themselves into champions of Homo [i]mediocris[/i].

  6. Van Veen   22 years ago

    As an addendum, I'd just like to point out that the main problem with the blogosphere is the bloggers. If the internet has proven anything it's the paucity of insight ordinary citizens possess.

  7. SteveInClearwater   22 years ago

    VAN VEEN: I'd just like to point out that the main problem with the blogosphere is the bloggers. If the internet has proven anything it's the paucity of insight ordinary citizens possess.

    SiC: Ayuh, though I usually get that feeling less at established Blogs than when I occasionally open the Message Board at Yahoo for any story which produces strong opposing views (abortion, gay rights, da war etc).

    At these Boards, I'm not sure whether to first laugh and celebrate because I can compose a functional sentence with correct spelling, or instead to cry at the 'power' the Web gives morons to communicate their beliefs.

  8. Al Aska   22 years ago

    Or something!

  9. Blog$ Suck!   22 years ago

    Blogs are pathetic bullshit. Even more pathetic than bloggers are people that actually read this soo-self-important DRIVAL, half-baked lies and misiformation and dare I say it...propaganda.

    How much money does Mr. Instapundit make on his blog? He is spewing propaganda for corporate money and a handjob from Chimpy. Look how the warmongering Shrub-controlled "blogsphere" has libeled and slurred against legitimate non-corporate news sources for real WORKING PEOPLE such as Indymedia and Democratic Underground? Look how they have instigated violence against people of color and cheered the biggest fascist coup in history?

    Blogs are no more free speech than Nike commercials advertising their sweatshops.

    The readers of blogs are bullshit and more importantly, people the make comments are bullshit.

  10. david f   22 years ago

    Hey there $!
    how 'bout:
    [irony] Blogs are no more free speech than Nike commercials advertising their sweatshops.

    The readers of blogs are bullshit and more importantly, people the make comments are bullshit. [/irony]

    isn't that what you mean? grin. are you with Indyorg? What do you think of Bureaucash?

    cheers,
    drf

  11. Ruthless   22 years ago

    Most of the foregoing reminds me of folks complaining about mess hall food.
    This blogging business provides the atmosphere of my barbershop, and I like it.
    Most people don't blog or read blogs do they?

  12. Jason Ligon   22 years ago

    Blog$:

    Never fear, there is still Dan Rather.

  13. R. C. Dean   22 years ago

    For a bunch of people who think blogs are useless driven written by blowhards and read by retards, you lot certainly drilled right down to the comment section to showcase your own drivel in a nicely blowhardy fashion.

    Its the old Woody Allen joke - you wouldn't join any club that would have you.

    Excellent post, Blog$. It looks like some got the joke, and some didn't.

    By the way, make sure you check out the hot libertarian action over at Samizdata.net, where this blowhard posts his drivel.

  14. Jason Ligon   22 years ago

    Oops, that was irony, wasn't it? Ah, well ...

  15. Will   22 years ago

    That's not a Woody Allen joke.

    That's a Groucho Marx joke.

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