Whither weblogs?
: The Philadelphia Inquirer asked me to write an op-ed on the future of weblogs after the election — yes, there is one. Here it is.
9 responses to “Whither weblogs?”
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Tried to go to your ‘Here’ cite and got a registration form.
However, I would like to offer an observation about the future possible to weblogs. Having been off for the past few days, I watched C-Span intensively. It is eyeopening what doesn’t get reported.
Yesterday evening, the Senate discovered in the $188 billion bill a provision to allow access to Appropriations Committee staff (“agents”) to any individual’s or corporation’s tax returns and information, full financial information.
Which Ted Stevens (the Committee’s Chair) admitted he was not aware had been included into the bill, there was a virtual revolt by Dems, the heads of all the involved committees expressed shock, it was passed off as staff action, the proviso was rejected, the bill passed only under the requirement that the House which had already passed the bill come back on Wednesday and delete the proviso before the bill could be sent to the President to sign (no one would send it on with the understanding that the President would not sign it) and the bill is sitting on the table at the Senate until Wednesday.
Did we hear about it today? Nope, it was all about intelligence reform being killed. Of course, the press was madly writing today’s articles on intelligence, this didn’t get their attention until today, when it’s old news. Did hear a comment on it on C-Span today from Washington Journal’s guest. James Kuhnhenn, National Correspondent from Ritter.
Then on Friday, Sen. McCain on the floor of the Senate announced what he had discovered about the Defense Dept’s award of huge amounts to Boeing in exchange for employment items, and as follows the exchange he had accidently happened on from emails he had demanded but had originally been withheld: (this from the Washington Post article on the web headlines yesterday (20th):
Roche has denied in congressional testimony that he ever asked Boeing to put pressure on Michael W. Wynne, principal deputy undersecretary for acquisition, who complained in 2003 that the tanker aircraft were too costly. McCain reported yesterday that on May 7 of that year, a Boeing lobbyist reported in an e-mail to Roche that Sambur was feeling pressured by Wynne to cut the cost; the lobbyist, Paul Weaver, asked if Boeing “needs to do anything like calling in the big guns to help out.”
Roche responded that “it’s time for the big guns to quash Wynne! Boeing won’t accept such a dumb contract form and price, and Wynne needs to ‘pay’ an appropriate price.”
Six weeks later, Roche complained directly to Wynne, who by then was an acting undersecretary of defense and more supportive of the program, that officials in the Pentagon’s Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) who said the lease did not meet key regulatory criteria were “about to cause us to embarrass SecDef [Rumsfeld], who having approved the lease, will now have to explain why his staff is destroying the case for it.”
Roche rendered his own view on the critics: “This is their way of asserting dominance over you. I know this sounds wild, but animals are animals.”
Wynne’s answer was that “I see this as an OSD discipline problem myself,” and shortly afterward, he wrote an e-mail to a PA&E official complaining: “I have plenty of problems, but being ‘fragged’ didn’t seem to be one of them. Now I worry.” -
Yeah, the registration is a pain. Luckily, my Mercury News registration worked though I had to look it up and then go through a page of “cool savings” offers I had no interest in.
Every website should allow visitors from a link to see an article. If they’re interested in something else, through up the registration wall if you have to.
You might want to quote a few passages from yourself for the many people who won’t bother to register.
Though it is a good piece and is worth the trouble it takes to read it. -
This is when you are at your best, Jeff. The subject is your forte.
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For those who have trouble reading articles at sites that require registration, try using http://www.bugmenot.com . This is a place where folks share registration info, and you can almost always find a valid registration.
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Good article, but I don’t agree with the paragraph on “getting quoted” by big media. A handful of bloggers (mostly former journalists, professors, etc, not the average Joe Citizen) get this kind of attention – the rest are famous to their 10 readers.
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try this
login free@entry.com
password portal1 -
“their 10 readers”. What a stupid and dismissive comment. Being quoted by the MSM is not the measure of success. There’s hardly any point, anyway given the twist and spin that would be applied, even if the ideological filters didn’t kill the citation in the first place. Fuggedabadit. Blogs will generate their own space and influence, as the MSM gradually thrashes itself to flinders in the background.
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I dunno. I read the article (I have a registration only because it’s my local paper now) and I kept on wondering why they couldn’t have found a local Philly blogger to write something.
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Well, gee, does it help that I spent most of my youth there? Or does Cinnaminson not count?
