Blogging for the MSM
The Detroit News has become such a comfortable home for me that I sometimes forget I'm actually a fringe member of the dreaded main stream media. I mean, it is an MSM outlet and in a couple more weeks I will have been there for three years. When I arrived John Scalzi and some other pretty big guy whose name I forget was blogging. They left after the 30 day commitment. I stayed and since then I've seen 60 bloggers pass through. There's 9400 posts in the archives. About 3000 of them are mine. I don't think it's idle boasting when I say I helped build the blog into what it is today.
Not that I did it singlehandedly. In fact I have no say in the operation at all. I still don't even understand how it works and it's morphed several times under our webmaster Felix's watchful eye since I started. This happens partly by design and partly by necessity. Blogging, like bartending, looks easy from the other side of the bar. A lot of bloggers came in strong but ran out of steam. It's not as easy as it looks to keep coming up with content every single day. Many times it was down to George Bullard and me to keep the blog rolling and even now half our blogroll posts rarely.
In our current incarnation, it's me and a couple of guys who post about once a week or so against five rightwing DetNews editorial writers, one wingnut and Cox and Forkham who post a cartoon once or twice a week. Sometimes I feel pretty well outnumbered. My critics are legion and my supporters have about given up on the mayhem so this comment really touched me today.
Meanwhile, I'm engaged in battle with Jeffrey on the meaning of neo-con and with Manny on why the purged attorneys are still a scandal for the Justice Department that nothing short of Gonzales' resignation is going to resolve.
They can gang up on me, but they can't beat me down. In fact I think I might be winning -- tonight anyway.
Not that I did it singlehandedly. In fact I have no say in the operation at all. I still don't even understand how it works and it's morphed several times under our webmaster Felix's watchful eye since I started. This happens partly by design and partly by necessity. Blogging, like bartending, looks easy from the other side of the bar. A lot of bloggers came in strong but ran out of steam. It's not as easy as it looks to keep coming up with content every single day. Many times it was down to George Bullard and me to keep the blog rolling and even now half our blogroll posts rarely.
In our current incarnation, it's me and a couple of guys who post about once a week or so against five rightwing DetNews editorial writers, one wingnut and Cox and Forkham who post a cartoon once or twice a week. Sometimes I feel pretty well outnumbered. My critics are legion and my supporters have about given up on the mayhem so this comment really touched me today.
Meanwhile, I'm engaged in battle with Jeffrey on the meaning of neo-con and with Manny on why the purged attorneys are still a scandal for the Justice Department that nothing short of Gonzales' resignation is going to resolve.
They can gang up on me, but they can't beat me down. In fact I think I might be winning -- tonight anyway.
posted by Libby Spencer at 9:34 PM
11 Comments:
When I arrived John Scalzi and some other pretty big guy whose name I forget was blogging.
The other big name you might be thinking of is Ed Brayton, formerly of . . . oh, Hell . . . some libertarian-leaning blog whose name escapes me after all this time away.
Incidentally, I was just thinking last night about that three-year span.
Oh, yeah. Brayton was at Dispatches from the Culture Wars and also at In the Agora.
Yeah, that's who it was Brayton. He was really rude to me later when he hosted a COTV that I entered.
Meanwhile, how good to hear from you Steven. Hope all is well. I'm still waiting for pix from you on the upcoming you know what.
neo con can mean a few different tings. originally, it was leftists who became right wing, mainly intellectual jewish guys who were freaked out by hippy anti-vietnam protesters and the drug culture. I think nowadays it refers to a preoccupation with israel and support for a hawkish foriegn policy. not surprisingly, they are huge fans of the current administration!
also, a big criticism of them is that they are stil leftists in a lot of ways. david horowitz is no longer a communist, but he persecutes communists like a communist would. and the whole notion of american empire is not a conservative one but something from the mind of trotsky.
As I said in Detroit Lester, words change their meaning over time and I think the commonly accepted version of neo-con today is as I defined it.
Good points though.
I'm afraid I'm one of those supporters who have given up on the mayhem. I'm not afraid to take on the nuts in the comment section, but I can't see any point in encouraging their bullying behavior. I don't see as much of that over the Detroit Free Press or some of Michigan's other papers for some reason. It's sad really that the News attracts that type of person.
your definition is wrong. you are substituting ulta conservative or far right for neo con. they simply aren't the same thing. a neo con is an ideological position, not an adjective
Kathy - I so do not blame you. That crowd can get very tiresome.
Lester, I'll repeat it again. The meaning of words change over time.
libby- not that word. it means a certain ideology and you will be called out for using it incorrectly by guys like that guy
Lester, I'm only called out by those who fit the new definition. You might want to read my last post at the DetNews about it. And be sure to click the links to get the full story.
you are close but not quite having of the cigar. Irving kristol is an ASSHOLE, but also a neo or "new" conservative. post barry goldwater. unlike traditional conservatives they believe in interventionsim, particularly in the case of the tiny jewish state.
karl rove and ann coulter aren't neo cons. it describes a person with a certain view on US foreign policy.
I think you're wrong Lester. Rove and Coulter are neo-cons. They may not believe in the ideology but they espouse it to advance their own goals.
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