We’ve been puzzling over Franklin Foer’s screed against the MSB (mainstream blogosphere) in the New Republic last month. Foer (brother of talented novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, I think) seems to believe that the pile-on of liberal bloggers against old media newspapers only helps conservatives to crush papers they don’t like. His update on TNR’s newish blog The Plank wraps in the NSA domestic spying story. Foer says “instead of praising the Times for excellent reportage and bravely bucking presidential pleas to bury the story, The MSB has heaped disdain on the Times.” There’s a point there that gets lost in the disdain Foer heaps on liberal bloggers (“hey, Atrios, when was the last time you exposed such a big story,” he asks) which gets heaped right back. And another one in Jeffrey Toobin’s piece in this week’s New Yorker. We may never know why Mother Times sat on the NSA story for a year but is there a bigger, more important story here about the embattled press in this country and its lack of defenders?
I’m resolving to post more this year and try to reflect more of our editorial process on the blog. Here’s the newest, coolest blog I’ve discovered. Send along yours and maybe we’ll start a blogroll or something.
As I valiantly try to convince you to do a show onth healthcare crisis in America, let me point you to a generalist blog in a niche market–healthcare. Matthew Holt’s The Health Care Blog. He’s got reasonably geeky stuff on there, but there’s also good information on policy for the non-wonk with a little Gramsci mixed in. He’s a daily read for me. The best place to start is his list of greatest hits.
Thanks Abby. I’ve added it to my list.
I think the polarisation of A-List bloggers along these presumed dominant idealogical lines in the United States – Liberal versus Conservative – brings a great deal of discredit to blogging as a form of publishing and expression. It transfers onto the internet, what was already the problems that rendered mainstream media inept; being locked into one ideology and supporting one of the two political parties. As a blogger and a blog reader, I for one will never pay tribute or stand aside in favor of these dominant bloggers who typically never participate in their own comments nor do they dare to stray from the liberal and conservative labels that have delivered them such a large readership. Long live the B and C list bloggers, and one day, with any luck, we’ll topple the totem poll altogether and level the playing field as it was meant to be.
Oh, by the way, one your long-time callers and posters here has Foer beat by a year on this scoop Read Me, Not Them on this scoop. If you’re still broadcasting from the Allston studios, I think I can get to you by 7 after work.
[pardon the word redundancy above.]
BicycleMark– excellent post, sorry that I responded to Mary’s post before reading yours. Agreed with you on a few counts: the main blogs perpetuating the faults of cable media; the conversations left unfinished by big bloggers, the need for alternatives to paying tribute to the A-List.
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