I was listening to This American Life in the car the other day and I heard yet another media type slam bloggers and blogging. He was interviewing some other equally clueless guy about something and this interviewer said, "Surely you know about the bloggers, they write and write, and write on their blogs. God knows why though since they don't get paid for it."
I thought to myself, "The corporate press does not and will not ever get it." With their corporate worldview and mentality the only things worth doing are those that you get paid for. And the only voices we should listen to are those of the stooges who are being paid to tell us things.
Well sorry old dude, I got news for you, you and your corporate media pals have had your run and we don't pay much attention to what you are being paid to tell us anymore. I get my news off the net these days and I have for quite some time. Since all news is delivered through someone's filter I'd rather get mine from websites that cater to my political leanings. I could care less about Wal-Mart or Bank of America and what they sponsor on your news shows. I'll stick to getting my news from Raw Story, Think Progress, Huffington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, and when I want commentary on the news stories of the day then I'll turn to my blogging buddies because after all they are more like me than you multi-millionaire talking heads are.
Blue Gal puts things into perspective in one post better than you TV guys do in 24 hours, D Cup breaks things down in a paragraph or two better than you guys do in all those newspapers, Dr. Zaius tells me more with a photoshopped picture and a comment or two than you guys ever did. And since they live out here in the real world with me I'm gonna stick with them.
I had little respect for this douchebag to begin with but when he cried about bloggers being taken more seriously than him, I lost what little respect I had remaining for him. Sure Brian, you spent your life in journalism but you know what else? You been paid to do the news. I'd rather get my news and opinion from someone who is not beholden to GE or Microsoft or Coca Cola.
It will never sink in on their dinosaur brains that we write our blogs for ourselves and if others read them and get influenced by what we write or get active in their community because of what we write or we decide we are fed up and we are gonna make the changes we want and not the changes the multi national corporations want us to make, then that's a good thing. If I can make one person see the light and they do something to help someone else, to help stop climate change, to help get a progressive elected, to stop shopping at Wal-Mart, to help bring single payer universal health care to this country, then I've done something pretty fucking good. They'll never understand why we stopped listening to them and why we started to make up our own minds.
I may be a cranky middle aged white guy but I am sick and tired of rich white guys on TV telling me what I should do, how to think, what to buy, where to shop, and who to vote for. I'm sick and tired of them slamming us for having the gall to not listen to them and to think and organize for ourselves.
11 comments:
What I love is the whole DIY ethic of blogging. The perspectives and biases of bloggers are easier to figure out than are those of corporate-funded mainstream news outlets.
Amen brotha! This is so well put and so true.
They just don't get it and they just don't want to.
I work in a field related to the tv biz and have friends who work in that actual industry... Including someone that I adore in a behind the scenes but relatively important spot at a cable news channel. (Not Fox, thats all I am saying!)
They are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic and chasing ratings that are sliding off like said deck chairs as the ship descends into the briny deep.
It is sad.
It reminds me of my early career (early 80's)spent at a tv station in upstate NY... All the experienced people laughed off cable as some nutty fad. These were the same dinosaurs who thought the same thing about tv in the 50's, FM radio in the 70's etc.
In my youthful optimism I couldn't understand why they would think that. Now I do.
Oh well kids- wake up and smell the blogging.
I am also laughing when I think back to my then outrage(i guess i always had it in me!) over GE buying NBC lo those many years ago. I was like some nutjob among my friends and colleagues who couldn't understand why I cared that a major defense contractor was buying a news outlet.
Anyway enough of this too long comment. So damn glad to be here.
It's posts like this that make me appreciate blogs all the more.
Well said.
I do think there's a lot of value in also looking at sources who aren't like you and don't agree with you. (This is easy for me, since there's probably nobody out there who agrees with me on every single issue.) It helps avoid one's arguments and viewpoints getting stale, which can happen when one never confronts opposing views on their own terms. And it can keep one aware of stories which one's own "side" ignores or minimizes because they're inconvenient.
This is true regardless of where one stands ideologically, of course.
And reading blogs is still the best way to do it. At least when you read a blogger with a different viewpoint, he's upfront about where he's coming from, unlike the MSM which maintains a pretense of objectivity.
I find it funny when bloggers are referred to as kids, just a bunch of kids. I'm not a kid, you're not a kid. We are intelligent adults exchanging ideas and discussing what we see happening in our world.
The MSM is the pusher man. We are breaking our "habit" and turning away from them. They are pissed and they are telling us we can't go on without them. They miss that money we used to hand to them every time we needed a "fix". How long can you remain a pusher man if no one is buying your dope?
I don't think journalism is being supplanted by blogging necessarily, though I think that despite there being countless amazing journalists out there, the rigid structure in which they function in many times poisons the news.
On the other hand, I don't think blogging is anything sacred. Just like anything else, it can become polluted and self-important. Yet, I find the lack of a rigid structure in the world of blogging encouraging.
I dunno --- there's always been pitfalls and obstacles to discovering what's going on in the world, whether it's journalism or blogging. The important thing is to try your best in finding your way, providing a complete picture, etc.
If you see people in the media disparage bloggers without any meaningful backing arguments, I would resist getting too angry. These people aren't probably in favor of real journalism, either.
Um, I like to have sex and I don't get paid for it.
In fact, getting paid to do some things actually gets you in trouble doesn't it?
Ditto to every comment posted so far and a great big
"Huzzah!"
to you, Dr. Monkey!
Every time I look at Brian Williams I think "God! I hope I never have to buy a car from that guy!"
this post and comments section is actually a perfect example of exactly why blogging is important.
where else do you get to have relevant conversations that span continents? where else do you get to read actual opposing sides to various arguments - as opposed to slight shades of gray that the media forces upon us? if anything is fair and balanced, it's the blogosphere - because the playing field truly is level, and THAT means that the voices that make sense will start to emerge from the babble.
thanks, doc monkey.
I am deeply honored to be mentioned in the same paragraph with such greats as Blue Gal and Dcup, Dr. Monkerstein. You are very kind.
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