Amateur Journalists Weigh In

The incomparable Matt Welch, whose work I've linked to before, has written some splendid stuff in a long career (just under a decade) for so young a guy. But his latest piece, in the Columbia Journalism Review, puts it all to shame, and stands as maybe the best article I've ever read about what blogging is all about, and where it really stands in the enlightened journalism pecking order. It's nothing less than a blogging manifesto that will slowly be read, reread and reflected upon by anyone who cares about the format. I especially love how he places blogging in the context as the true spiritual successor to alternative weeklies, which not so long ago were the real center of the journalism world, but which have been ravaged in recent years by increasing corporatization, chaining and the inevitable loss of vigor that has come as a result of its aging core audience (and the professionalization of its own operation). He rightly blasts alt-weeklies for their "politically monochromatic" nature and the "dull pieties of official progressivism" that often rob them of their energy these days. On the other hand, he notes that the best of amateur blogging is "connecting intimately with readers in a way reminiscent of old-style metro columnists or the liveliest of New Journalists." His best line zeroes in on the horrified reaction to blogging from so much of the traditional journalism community: "For lazy columnists and defensive gatekeepers, it can seem as if the hounds from a mediocre hell have been unleashed." But the fact that this vigorous piece appears in the leading journal of the profession--like the blogging piece I mentioned last Wednesday in the current Harvard Business Review--speaks loudest of all, I'd say.

d.a. levy Lives. Cleveland's late '60s beat poet, d.a. levy, seems immortal. He gets more mentions these days, perhaps, than when he was alive and walking among us. After missing WVIZ's much-talked-about portrait of the poet several times, I finally caught it on a reprised Applause segment a week or two ago, and it was worth waiting for, a moving video poem to a sadly tormented soul. I'll admit that my once-tepid interest in levy, who took his own life, has been sparked a little by our blogging colleague Mark Kuhar, whose Deep Cleveland project places levy at the center of everything. But Mark really ought to add to his site a link to this eye-opening interview he did with the webzine 3am Magazine, which I stumbled upon recently. "...what was most appealing to me was the fact that he was from the streets of Cleveland. And he didn't leave. The city was his inspiration and persecution," Mark notes of levy, going on to argue that in this, he was a fitting successor to Hart Crane and Langston Hughes, a couple of more famous native bards made good...

The Real Bard of Manhattan. Some New Yorkers have been known to wonder aloud why their favorite columnist, Jimmy Breslin, never seemed to develop much of a following outside of New York, certainly nothing remotely approaching that of, say, the sainted bard of Manhattan, Pete Hamill. I think it's pretty simple, actually: they've read him at least once. Read this charming example of his bitterness and bile, directed at his grandchildren no less, and maybe you'll see why, too. Perhaps like me, you'll wait for the punch line that never comes, denoting that this is some kind of horrible, awkward joke. But alas, no. Meanwhile, the ageless Hamill keeps cranking out graceful columns and poetic books, and gets countless chances to speak for the city in movie cameos ("The Insider" and "the Paper") and documentaries, like the Ken Burns three-hour epic on PBS last night (more about which later in the week)...Might you perhaps be a tad obsessed by your blog? Take this test and find out...

Peer-to-Peer vs. Top-Down Politics. Moveon.org, the site-turned-political-force begun by a couple of SiliconValleyers during the Clinton impeachment days as an inducement to get Congress to drop it, has obviously become a power in politics, rivaling and perhaps even outdoing MeetUp. It rightly got a lot of attention for its recent virtual primary among the Dems hoping to beat George Bush. But how many also know that the site recently facilitated the raising of over $1 million (from more than 32,000 members) for the far less sexy, even pedestrian, issue of supporting the Texas Democrats who have bolted the state to stymie Republican redrafts of the state's electoral districts. I think that pretty well proves, as almost nothing has before, that the web has become an incredibly powerful force in politics. At least progressive, Democratic politics. The poor Republicans just don't seem to get it. Contrast the aforementioned peer-to-peer successes with this incredibly lame, top-down "GOP Team Leader" site masterminded by the clueless Republican National Committee. Everything from the home-page photo of George W. in a ten-gallon hat (at a time when half the world is concerned that the reckless cowboy is more than an image) to the stilted language and silly awards for writing canned op-eds is laughably off-key. But I admit, I couldn't help myself: I signed up for this lam-o site to see what I might learn about the enemy...