A Nail in the Foot and a Thorn in the Side

On the way to the emergency room to remove a two-inch nail from the bottom of my black and white Converse sneakers, I chatted with my dad about media bias and the blogosphere.

Dad thought that media bias was much more a problem ten or fifteen years ago, but FOX news, talk radio, and the blogs have balanced things out a bit. There are more people in the media tent than there used to be.

The old man is very taken with the blogging. While I was getting the nail removed from my foot by the cruelest of doctors, Dad read an article by Andrew Sullivan in Time magazine, and the conversation continued on the ride home. Both of us like the idea that anyone can start up a blog and potentially make a difference. The little guy in his pajamas bent over his keyboard at 2:00am changing the course of history. Blogger as gadfly. I'm not sure how accurate that image is, but we liked it. Could have been the pain killers.

Dad was also shocked at "strong language" of some of the bloggers. He questioned whether Kos should really refer to Little Green Footballs as "a steaming, pile of shit".

In contrast to Sullivan's triumphant article on blogging, Henry at Crooked Timber has questioned how much the blogosphere really broke that story, he suggests that the White House could have a shill in the blogosphere, and that blogging could get coopted by the mainstream media and political officials. Interestingly enough, he also writes about how his words were misconstrued by a journalist. Last week, I had a post about giving lousy soundbite.

Trading advice about how to talk to journalists? The blogosphere is getting more professional by the second. I'm going to have to get a better pair of pajamas.

Comments

[flaime]

I don't believe that FOX News and talk radio really do all that much to balance media bias. They just add more bias, in the opposite direction.

It's just as hard to find blogs that lack bias. It does help that most of the more reputable blogs will admit their biases, but some of the more popular blogs aren't particularly reputable, IMO.

[Dr_Funk]

Well, I hope you got a tetanus shot....
Michele over at a Small Victory did an interview with BBC radio. The interviewer tried to be a bit smarmy and condescending about 'security mums' and so forth. But Michele came across as more with it than the reporter was.
The fourth wall on blogs is coming down..presuming it was ever up...

[Laura]

why it is good to have comments... Thanks, Dr. Funk, for telling me about Michele's interview and bringing up the issue of security moms. It deserves a post.