Steve’s take on a MSM Wall-Street-themed take on blogs. You can count on him for a reality check. To the writer (of the NY Metro feature), blog readers are simply consumers, and blogdom is designed by Christof.
He references the dotcom disaster (and before that, I remember all the hoopla about the Japanese business model, that was going to leave us all in the dust), and all the CW about where that was going, as a cautionary tale. So have no fear about the Wal-Martization of blogs.
As one of his commenters stated:
What makes Gilliard solid, in my opinion, is his ruthless allergy to bullshit, his eye for creative abuse and his ability to caption his abuse (the better shots of the ongoing Stop Snitching “portraits” deserve framing IMO.) If Gilliard turns into a whiner or a panderer we will all leave his whining, pandering ass in the dust. He probably wouldn’t have it any other way.
What non-bloggers don’t understand is how time-consuming and difficult blogging is. Those who make it to the so-called A-list, usually do so because they work extremely hard and take it very seriously.
This is a new medium still in its infancy, but it has already changed the way information is produced and distributed. It has the potential to spread democracy in a viral way in which no tank, bullet or bomb can come close.
I am perfectly content to be a C-list (more like Z-list, but the NY Metro writer assumes only three levels to his heirarchical flowchart) blogger. My blog will not have advertising, unless it’s for items like books or films that promote my bigger agenda. It is an adjunct to my organizing work, and I think at this point I can safely say I won’t be selling out to on that score.
Right now, this blog is about progressive politics and the greater Waco, Texas, area known as “The Heart of Texas,” with a little science, food and personal diversions thrown in for seasoning. Not really a recipe for “success” as defined by Blogshares.
Update:
Peter Daou surveys the left side of blogland.
The attempt to marginalize progressive bloggers as part of an angry, unwashed, irrational mob is in full swing, but truth-telling has a self-sustaining power. Bloggers will continue to cut through the fabricated storylines, providing clarity, sanity, honesty, and an abiding loyalty to the Constitution and to the principles our country is founded upon.
History will look kindly on them.
And Reddhedd at FireDogLake takes the next logical step:
It seems to me that we have reached a point where things are moving up to a whole new level of discourse among progressives around the blogoverse. The question is: what direction do we take things from here? Now that is a question worth pondering, isn’t it?