Friday, September 17, 2004

Sally Greene is at the National Newspaper Association meeting in Denver (her mom is getting an award). She's run into varying attitudes on blogs. "(O)ne publisher of a weekly paper told me that blogs had no crediblity with him....The bloggers that might be reliable and good, he said, he can't understand why they do it. They must be people who have too much time on their hands or can't figure out what else to do with their lives, he said." Geez, everything but the pajamas rap. Dean Singleton was more clueful, she said, even though he did not address blogs directly. "(The) CEO of...the seventh largest newspaper company in the United States...brought one message to this convention of community newspapers...: You too can, and must, enter the 21st century through much more sophisticated and interactive use of technology." 5:37:32 PM    comment []

FromtheRoots: "On Wednesday, Burr...used his position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to kill a resolution that asks the president to provide the names of CEOs and lobbyists that met with Dick Cheney...What are they so afraid of revealing?" 5:02:17 PM    comment []

Luna does not like Ivan, even the fringes we are getting of the storm. She was in no hurry to go outside for the midday walk she usually demands, and she moved warily on her own turf. The wind is warm and the brief rain we got so far was intense, and even I can feel that something is unusual, but the dog seems to be receiving information via some sensory mechanism that has atrophied or never existed in homo sapiens. Canine Super-Doppler? A barkometer? She's not telling. 1:49:47 PM    comment []

Andrew Sullivan, May 9: "The one anti-war argument that, in retrospect, I did not take seriously enough was a simple one. It was that this war was noble and defensible but that this administration was simply too incompetent and arrogant to carry it out effectively. I dismissed this as facile Bush-bashing at the time. I was wrong." 1:41:14 PM    comment []

Matt Gross: "'Freedom is on the march,' Bush said. Yes, but which way is it going?" When I write about the ill-progress of the war in Iraq, I get comments saying I want us to fail. I put that logic in the same category as cocktail party chatter that "everyone" cheats on their taxes or their spouse. It says more about the commenter than the subject matter. I would prefer that W emulate his father and win the war quickly, then go home and let the Democrats work on some useful domestic policy. But the facts on the ground suggest that W is not going to do that. Well, the "quickly" part is already off the table, but the "win" part seems to be in jeopardy, too. And ironically, the "go home" aspect may not happen, either. 9:16:14 AM    comment []

The online version of this morning's NYT obituary of Johnny Ramone includes audio clips of "I Wanna be Sedated," "Beat on the Brat" and "Blitzkrieg Bop." 8:53:40 AM    comment []

Dave Winer and Adam Curry have a new web radio show called Trade Secrets. One of the biggest laugh lines of the original BloggerCon was the intro to Instapundit, which was said to get more hits than Adam Curry in an Amsterdam coffee shop. But Adam is in fact a really smart guy, nice as hell, and a visionary on the web. Best of luck. 8:43:19 AM    comment []

NYT fabulist Jayson Blair was invited to speak at Winston-Salem State. Tut-tutters tut-tutted on cue. But the students had tough questions and strong opinions. Trust the audience. It was the mantra of our blog conference. Apparently it applies to a group of young journalists, too. Winston-Salem Journal: "'He was just beating around the bush,' said Kristen Turner, a senior in the mass-communications department. Tiphane Deas, a sophomore in the mass-communications program, said she wanted to know more about what Blair was feeling as he fabricated stories. 'I was expecting for him to look for ways to cover what he did and that's pretty much what he did,' Deas said." N&R reporter Mike Kernels on hanging out with a sinner against the profession: "Time spent with the engaging and likable Blair conjures up feelings of sorrow, doubt and, let’s just say it, an uneasiness about being around him that knots up your stomach." 8:21:41 AM    comment []

"Is my perspective 'antidemocratic'? Sure: Democracy is overrated." That's not Putin, it's Munger...chairman of the political science department at Duke. 7:59:20 AM    comment []