As I was browsing Swampland, a blog created for TIME magazine writers Joe Klein, Jay Newton Small, Karen Tumulty, Jay Carney, Michael Scherer and incorporating the work of Mike Murphy and Ana Marie Cox (of Wonkette fame), I noticed that Ms. Cox posted a quasi-farewell to that blog. In her note she thanks her fellow writers but also adds this, “I specifically appreciate . . . the commentors. Without you we are nothing.”
In his most recent column blasting “Choose Your News,” and, more specificially, blogging and anonymous comments, John Brummett writes, “Democratic news . . . net you such things as the online spreading via blog comments sections of horrible, absurd, vicious and disgusting rumors.”
I touched on this a bit yesterday, and I thought it relevant and insightful to point to Ms. Cox’s view. After all, she created Wonkette.com, one of the most popular and influential blog sites on the Internet. And she found her way to TIME magazine, of all places.
But as I also noted yesterday, endeavors like these are ruining journalism if you accept Mr. Brummett’s premise. Take that NY Times, MSNBC, Washington Post, The New Republic, Huffington Post . . .
Hey, Mr. Rutherford, how you doin’? I see that you don’t get many comments, so I wanted to help. If your blog is good enough for Philip Martin, it’s good enough for me. Those antiques called newspapers used to get comments back in their day. They called them letters to the editor. Generally, though, the newspapers required verified signatures. And these letters were usually filtered by a news professional exercising arbitrary judgment so that no one could write an anonymous letter to the editor spreading a horrid rumor accusing someone of murder. If you will reread the paragraph of my column from which you quote, you may notice that I didn’t ridicule comments. I ridiculed spreading of salacious lies and gossip and slander and such. Just a little nuance there. Saw Frost/Nixon on stage in NY. Magnificent. Fear not as good on big screen. Will see. This Florida/Alabama game — fascinating matchup, don’t you think? P. S. — For what it’s worth, you are much better-looking than that old Katherine Harris aide who writes that other blog. Alas, that is perhaps the faintest of praise.