Press Action

Saturday, April 09, 2005

The Secret to the Success of Blogging

By Micah Holmquist

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Posted 04/09 |

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Nice job, Micah.

Posted by Diane Warth from on 04/09 at 08:40 PM

“The brilliance of bloggers, however, lies just as much in the stories they do not cover as in those they do. Bloggers, by which I mean bloggers that important pundits such as myself read...”

Perhaps one day the “important pundits” will discover that the “bloggers worth reading” are not much different than the gate keepers that already exist in our Media. The bloggers “on top” blog mostly about partisan issues - that’s both sides of the blogosphere - and care very little about the stories that slip through the cracks.

Case in point: the non-stop media coverage of Terri Schiavo and then the Pope was given non-stop blog coverage by the bloggers you read. On the left, most of the coverage was about how those stories were drowning out other stories which only aided in drowning out other stories.

During the non-stop Terri & The Pope coverage, I’ve written many stories that are “something else about” Jeff Gannon and Talon News and GOPUSA other than “his sexual history” which is “important” and that show how no one at Talon News/GOPUSA were responsible for “proper journalism.” I’ve also blogged about “malnourished Iraqi” children and “the recent report on what went wrong with the weapons of mass destruction that were supposed to be in Iraq.” Since yesterday I’ve been working on a story about two 16 year-olds that have been detained as “would-be suicidal blombers” that reveal “the non-sensical nature of the “war on terror."”

There are many stories that you find in The Nation and Mother Jones which never make Time or Newsweek. It’s the same thing in the blogosphere. Instead of reading the same old bloggers, why not search alternative voices, which are also worth reading, such as Loaded Mouth, The Common Ills, big brass blog or even the two blogs I blog at. There are many great diaries that appear at Daily Kos, as well, and sometimes the under-reported stories do rise to the top of the recommended list.

Peace
Ron Brynaert
Why Are We Back In Iraq?
Watching The Watchers

Posted by Ron Brynaert from Brooklyn on 04/10 at 10:36 AM

I agree with Ron Brynaert, Micah! While I agree with your general criticism of the blogosphere, more than a few of the left-leaning blogspots do cover stories which never make it into the MSM (for example the one about malnourished children in Iraq and a more critical perspective on the legacy of the Pope, as on the ‘corrente’ blogspot where it was mentioned that JP II sucked up to Pinochet, hardly a man who stood up for human rights). Apart from that: food for thought in your post.

Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia on 04/10 at 06:35 PM

Ron,

This piece was at least as much a hit on the coverage of blogs by the “MSM"� as it was on the top blogs.

Blogs are too diverse to be treated as they were done here and as they are done frequently in other forms of the media.

Thanks for the URLs.

Posted by micah holmquist from on 04/12 at 09:48 AM

Micah,

I pretty much got the gist of what you were saying...I know you were making fun of the “important pundits” and the blogs “that matter”...I just thought you should have been a little clearer...and mentioned some more diverse blogs...so that’s why I left my message.

In my never humble opinion, your blogroll should be expanded...though at least you have a lot of Sites that don’t get any attention (some I never heard of but will check out)

peace

Posted by Ron Brynaert from Brooklyn on 04/12 at 10:02 AM

I think it is important not to try to tell people what they should be doing with their sites, Ron my man.

I know from my POV if someone leaves a comment on my site telling me what they think I should do in that tone, I wouln’t do it just to spite them.

But that’s me, and I’m kind of a dick, so take it from the source.

~A!

Posted by ~A! from on 04/13 at 06:15 AM