Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Sunday, January 28, 2007 6:56:05 PM
On the one hand, I have the Gazette Telegraph telling me in a George Will editorial that that 99.9 percent of the 100 million blogs are not serious, and implies that serious people should ignore the remainder as well. I also have the Gazette telling me two days ago that only 8% of Americans read blogs. Likewise, the Wall Street Journal tells me that bloggers are imbeciles and their readers are fools.
If I am to buy into that, why do I find out that last spring Harvard Law School held a "Bloggership Symposium." Why is Slip Opinions, an online supplement to the Washington University Law Review featuring original commentary and debate by members of the legal academy, bench and bar (to quote their blog), going to publish the whole symposium this spring?
Why did Tom Delay start his own blog last year?
Why would the Democratic candidates be kowtowing to the Huffington Post and the Daily Koz?
Why would the new US Senate Republican leadership have hired a blogger to advise them on internet issues right after the election?
Why would I be reporting on law school students using a blog to sharpen their thinking and to improve their grades?
None of the likely readers, with the possible exception of Democratic voters, are lightweights, or "fools" to use the Wall Street Journal characterization.
The Gazette Telegraph and other MSM outlets are doing a disservice to conservative readers. Their self serving claim that bloggers are imbeciles is just that, self serving. The thing that bothers me most is that it convinces conservatives, who should be paying attention, to ignore the damage Democrats are doing to the conservative cause on the internet.