September 26, 2004

NYT Magazine and campaign trail blogging

Rayne Today

Long time no blog here at RFB due to a taxing schedule, very sorry. Full employment at non-blog-related work has a way of doing that to people, chewing up perfectly good blogging time. But just as my schedule lightens, the New York Times publishes a magazine article today on campaign blogging. Wow. What a lot to chew on.

I'm left with a jumble of conflicting perceptions after this lengthy ramble by Matthew Klam:

  • Lengthy, yes, ten whole pages devoted to the topic! Does that mean blogging's jumped the shark?
  • Did this guy write this much in one piece because he can't blog? Really, bloggers could have stripped this piece to its essence in a handful of words.
  • Am I the only one who thinks this character doesn't care much for Kos, has a love-hate thing for Josh, and is in lust for Wonkette (in spite of his looking down his nose at her)?
  • Does he not get that political blogging isn't only about the uppermost handful or the Top Hundred, that it's about the mass of the iceberg below? Does he not get the idea of memetic spread?

  • Politically biased, yes?

    The ever-increasing scrutiny of candidates because of cable and the Internet has only made more evident how impregnable and unfathomable our political machinery has become.

    Umm, no. The invisibility isn't the issue - the emperor really has no clothes. Just sayin', like the rest of the bloggers who've noticed and written so.

  • Is Wonkette really a political blog in the same category as Josh and Kos? Are there no other female political bloggers on the campaign trail to write about? Was her invite to the Democratic Convention the key criteria to writing about her?
  • Are Klam's age and background reflected in this piece?

What's your take on this NYT piece, fellow blogger?

UPDATE I* was going to post about this article earlier today but couldn't get online. Here is, what I take as, a response of sorts to the New York Times piece by Billmon in the LA Times. I must agree with lots of what he writes. I recently lost access to my Paypal account because the topics I cover are inappropriate and iTunes will not allow me to use their linking system to songs for the same reason. I've been seriously considering abandoning blogging altogether as the cost and effort has gotten to be too high for me. Anyway read Billmon's piece and comment. * filchyboy

Posted by rayne at September 26, 2004 1:00 PM
Comments

"I've been seriously considering abandoning blogging altogether as the cost and effort has gotten to be too high for me."

Heh, my site has a drop-dead date of November 30 because there's no viable financial model to continue it as my full-time work. As I've said elsewhere today, in response to the bit in the mag's article about Wonkette's lack of riches at a starting salary of $18,000/year: If anyone out there has an $18,000/year they aren't happy with, please donate it to me. I can survive easily on $18k/year.

Posted by: The One True b!X at September 26, 2004 8:08 PM

Your first link here is broken. YOu need to add "ht" to the first two letters "tp".

On a much lower level, I've written a post complaining about yet another stupid press piece (this from AP) about blogging which also focuses stupidly on how much money people make-or don't make from blogging. My post is at Worst Journalism About Blogging.

Posted by: Richard Silverstein at September 28, 2004 6:37 PM
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