“The revolution will not be blogged.” So says columnist George Packer in a recent issue of Mother Jones magazine. “To see beyond their own little world and get a sense of what’s really going on, journalists and readers need to get out of their pajamas,” he writes.
It’s a very funny article; telling about the nature of bloggers, too, I suppose. Here are a few more of Packer’s comments:
“My private habit (and others) has emerged as the journalistic signature of the 2004 campaign. Although only 13 percent of Americans regularly get their campaign news from the Internet — still far less than from local, cable, and network TV news — nonetheless a whole industry of analysts has risen up to declare 2004 the dawn of a new political era. Part of the mystique of blogs is their protean quality: They work both sides of the divide between politics and media, further blurring the already fuzzy distinctions between reporter, pundit, political operative, activist, and citizen. The universe of blogs includes those of both major parties; candidates’ campaign websites (most famously, Howard Dean’s, which became the hottest organizing tool since direct mail — until it turned into an online echo chamber that failed to deliver actual votes); the blogs of more traditional journalists on the websites of news organizations such as The New York Times, The New Republic, and ABC; and the proliferation of one-man electronic soapboxing by the known and the obscure alike.
“In other words, the blog documents, comments, and participates. Nothing new here.”
