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An Ivory Tower Editor's Attack On Blogs

"The Blog Mob" -- that's the headline on the anti-blog screed that Joseph Rago, an assistant editorial features editor at The Wall Street Journal wrote today for OpinionJournal.

Rago resurrected some well-worn criticisms of blogs and embellished them with a feature writer's flair, like this: "The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps."

He also dismissed most blogs as "pretty awful," many of the most popular ones as "downright appalling," and the medium as a whole as "homogenous." While that may be true, the same could be said of the mainstream media when you look at it as one big mass.

Ultimately, Rago resorted to the "mob" label that Steve Lovelady of Columbia Journalism Review pinned on blogs long ago. "Mobs are exciting," he wrote. "People also like validation of what they already believe; the Internet, like all free markets, has a way of gratifying the mediocrity of the masses."

Read it all if you're in the mood for another rant about how clueless republican journalists (the aristocrats) are when it comes to the democratic blogosphere (the peasants with pitchforks).

UPDATE: John Cole of Balloon Juice called Rago's piece "frighteningly accurate," QandO critiques Rago's piece at length.

Posted by Danny | 12:28 PM

Comments

My own blog is a satire and opinion column. I don't do reporting in the traditional sense - phone calls, interviews - but I do research my topics. But when it comes to commentary pieces, which are often highly subjective, traditional reporting is not necessarily relevant. And my opinions are as valid as any other writer's.

Pete Bogs | 12.21.06 09:27 AM

"Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps."

What a load of hooey. If blogs "rode along with MSM", they wouldn't report anything.

And gee...where do you suppose the acronym MSM came from? News flash: "mainstream media" is what it is, but it didn't invent that particular description of itself. The BLOGGERS did.

Sounds like sour-grapes and good old-fashioned jealousy to me. :))

buy bull banger | 12.21.06 11:41 AM

We would be categorised as a Blog by Joseph Rago.

We came up with a "WPN Peace Plan for the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict"
http://worldpressnetwork.net/index.php/Palestine

When did we ever see anything like this from the MSM ? They talk a lot about Peace Process, but which of them has been explicit on what the whole peace process should be (borders, right of return, protection forces) .. or are they there just to report what Bush & Co tells them "will happen"

editorial@worldpressnetwork.net | 12.21.06 12:00 PM

On my own blog, I give our local media celebrities and professional prevaricators absolute hell for every misstep, taking as my motto that all politics is local.

Colorado is ground zero for the culture wars. Since our local paper the Rocky Mountain News is one of the most right-wing, anti-immigrant and anti-Indian papers in the country, any pushback by local blogs - like Colorado Confidential - rattles these corporate functionaries' self-imposed cages like a washboarded, information superhighway.

And it's fun!

More, more, more!

Fire Witch | 12.21.06 12:49 PM

Did anyone see the NBC News with Katie Couric last night?

Katie did this long tear-jerking piece about delimbed soldiers skiing in Denver at one of those classy resorts. At one point Katie said, "[...] all the wounded soldiers, and there are lots of them."

Lots of them! Well, that's reporting.

That is the sort of reporting the mob is supporting.

Keep the war going, Baby, we're making fistfuls!

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher
Limestone, Maine

An Illustrated Philosophy Primer for Young Readers
http://www.geocities.com/donaldwrobertson/index.html

Don Robertson | 12.21.06 01:16 PM

Who told us that Iraq had WMD, the MSM or independant blogs?

Who told us that Iraq was involved in 9/11, the MSM or independant blogs?

Who refuses to tell us about the deadly effects of "depleted" uranium, the MSM or independant blogs?

Who constantly quotes the lies of "unnamed government officials", the MSM or independant blogs?

Who tries to bury the real news in a sea of irrelevencies such as the underwear of pop sluts or some missing idiots on a mountain in winter, the MSM or independant blogs?

Who has been infiltrated by Zionists to the point of total information control, the MSM or independant blogs?

Doug@usa.com | 12.21.06 01:27 PM

Mr Rago must be venting his fears of becoming extinct. Attacking blogs is like attacking free speech. Blogs give everyone a chance to voice his or her opinion to a limitless audience. The flow of information is not only controlled by the Corporate Mass Media, but also by any blogger who has a large enough audience, and that is by any means more democratic. Therefore, this concludes that Mr Rago is Anti-Democratic!

blog reader | 12.21.06 11:22 PM

The WSJ needs to get with the new program for the 21st Century. Information needs to come from multiple viewpoints (the blogosphere) as opposed to centralized hierarchy (the newspaper industry).

I have to admit though, I commented here because this iVoryTowerz editor wants to embrace this new communication medium.

Rockwell | 01.02.07 10:38 PM

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