I've been covering the blogosphere for Slate for almost two years. In that time, I've formulated two laws which further immersion into the messy world of unvarnished opinion has done nothing to overturn:
Weiss's 1st Law of the Blogosphere: Journalists who become bloggers will suffer in both roles because the abuse and stupidity they'll face in the latter will make them psychologically less fit for the former.
Weiss's 2nd Law of the Blogosphere: The crazier the comments section of a blog, the more interesting the blog. The tendency to leave a comment is no different than the one to write a letter to the editor: the reader strenuously disagrees with the printed content. However, a comment needn't be vetted for clarity, eloquence or sanity before it's posted. So a blog filled with bile, sociopathology, anti-Semitism must be doing something to provoke. A blog filled with easy-listening affirmation, on the other hand, has got a built-in audience and need only cater to expectation and party line.
Joe Klein needs to learn the laws:
But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear tactics.
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