Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Today America, tomorrow the world!

Woo-hoo! Bill O'Reilly says that Blogs are destroying America (Hat Tip: Nashville is Talking). How did it take him so long to figure it out? And why stop at just America? My goals are bigger: first America, then the UK, Western Democracy and then the world!!!! Soon I will destroy everything, just as soon as my visitor levels get a little higher. Still, got to start somewhere.

Dang I wish I'd known that. 'Course that O'Reilly inanity comes on so late in the day here in the UK that I would have never been able to stay up to watch it, plus the fact I'm staying in a place with only 8 channels, none of 'em FoxNews.

One blogger in Alabama, Bruce Klaiss at Harper's Mews watched the show and had some commentary. But it was all, reasoned and considerate like, that was the only commentary I could find in a quick trawl this morning.

I do wonder though why blogs are being attacked. This seems, in a sense, a fundamental assault on free speech, just 'cause you don't like it. Blogs are the soapbox of the modern age - and just because most people blather on about a lot of nonsense, doesn't mean that they shouldn't have a forum. Indeed, blogs are less invasive than the crazy guy on the street corner - you actually have to seek them out.

Anyway, at least there are organisations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation with their great "Liberty waits on your fingers - Keep on blogging" campaign.

2 comments:

St. Caffeine said...

Good point. I've noticed an uptick in "blog attacks" myself. Just today, I was reading some syndicated opinion page piece (don't remember who) and the author was blaming blogs for the spread of, what have turned out to be, false post-Katrina horror stories out of New Orleans.

He started by discussing a false email that keeps making the rounds -- a volunteer in Houston was disgusted with the ingratitude and boorish behavior of the hurrican refugees, ... The email certainly does have racist overtones (they're not even subtle), but the guy made this out to be the work of blogs. I'm sure the issue has been discussed on blogs (probably pro and con), but to my knowledge this story spread via email. I'm not quite sure how blogs are implicated in this issue.

Of course, he worked in a few "tsk tsk" comments for traditional media, but it just seemed that his blog attack was off base.

Bruce -- Harper Blue said...

Thank you for noting me! It's always nice to find a new link in my Technorati list.

As for the meat of your post, take a look at this post from Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice. Joe often hits it on the head, in my opinion, and is always worth reading in any case.