In Blogs We Trust

poorandstupid.com ^ | May 12, 2003 | Donald Luskin

[WaterDragon]

I was introduced as "a blogger" when I gave an after-dinner speech last week to the annual meeting of Russell 20-20 Association, a group of the world's largest investment managers and pension plans, sponsored by the Frank Russell Company (my speech, "The Economics of Mass Destruction," can be viewed on the Trend Macrolytics site).

The president of the Frank Russell Company, who introduced me, didn't know what a "blog" is -- and neither did anyone else at my table, which included one of the most senior faculty member of Stanford University (where the meeting was held), the manager of the world's largest corporate pension fund, and the manager of one of America's largest foundation endowments.

When I asked for a show of hands among the 100 or so executives present for anyone who knew what a "blog" is, less than a dozen were raised.

My friends, if blogging is the next killer app of the Internet -- or more important, if it is a fundamental change-the-world innovation in media and journalism, then we have our work cut out for us, and we have our opportunity. We are like the cobblers who have discovered the land where no one wears shoes -- yet.

At the dinner table I explained what a blog is. There was the usual polite, partially feigned fascination with anything having to do with the Internet. But when I said that blogs have completely transformed my utilization of media and the way I acquire information about the world -- that I basically get everything from blogs now -- everyone stopped being polite.

One fellow at the table was utterly shocked that I would trust any information I acquired online. I asked him if he trusted information he got from politically biased mainstream newspapers like the New York Times, or for that matter, from any commercial media biased toward at least some degree of sensationalism, if not some particular political view.

I asked him if he had ever, once, read a newspaper account of some event of which he personally had expert or eye-witness knowledge, and found it to be accurate.

I asked him he had ever once been interviewed by a reporter who quoted him accurately or in context, or who didn't already have the story written before the conversation even began?

Well, no, he had to admit... but still... "...not the Internet! You can't be serious!"

Of course anything that's wrong with the mainstream media -- bias, error, sensationalism, and so on -- can be wrong with the blogosphere as well. But there are six critical differences, all in favor of the blogosphere.

1) When you surfing the blogosphere you are never deluded by the false sense of security conferred by an undeservedly authoritative brand-image like that of the New York Times -- you are in the wild west, and you know it.

2) In the blogosphere you are massively diversified -- you can easily and rapidly access many competing sources of information and points of view.

3) Blogs tend to cite their sources diligently, and provide hyperlinks directly to source material -- if you want to do your own fact-checking, establish context, or just learn more, you can easily do so

. 4) Blogs can act as a digest of and gateway to the conventional media -- so you have the best of both worlds.

5) Blogs tend to be written by people who read blogs, and blogs often refer to each other, link to each other, police each other, and so on, so errors or biases are quickly discovered and exposed -- in the heyday of the Internet this used be called "collaborative filtering."

6)Because blogging permits anyone to be his own author/reporter/pundit/publisher is he wishes, you can personally participate in the process of the formation of news and opinion in the blogosphere -- it's not just passively acquiring information, it's being an insider to an information-processing community.

So if you're a blogger, or even if you just get some of your news and opinions from blogs -- take a moment to be proud of what you are part of. It really is a force for good. It really is revolutionary. And it really is just beginning.

[WaterDragon]

Luskin is an economist, and on his blog he regularly rips the New York Times' Krugman's lying columns, and usually in a hilarious way.

[BRK]

Where can a guy find some good blogs. I saw a few once before, but they were mostly computer geek blogs talking about stuff I didn't even understand.

[WaterDragon]

poorandstupid.com

TheCorner

InstaPundit

At each blog site, you'll find links to many, many more listed. These will get you started.

[JustPiper]

Blogs intimidate me, hard to learn anything new at this age ;)

[HiTech RedNeck]

FR is just one humongous blog.

[WaterDragon]

Here's one that might be fun for you:

USS Clueless

[WaterDragon]

That's kind of true.

[JustPiper]

Oh thanx, now my head is truly spinning ;)

[WaterDragon]

LOL! Sorry.

[WaterDragon]

I promise...this one doesn't talk about computer stuff:

ParaPundit

[but it does mention Oregon's need for Klingon translators]

[backhoe]

even if you just get some of your news and opinions from blogs -- take a moment to be proud of what you are part of. It really is a force for good. It really is revolutionary. And it really is just beginning.

Dragon, I absolutely believe this is true- blogs are the next leading edge of the information revolution that is sweeping the globe.

Here are some I like:

The Agonist
Airstrip One
Alisa in Wonderland
Alley Writer
Eric Alterman
Amish Tech Support
Andrew Jackson's W*blog
Angua's First Blog
Another Say
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
A&L Daily
A Small Victory
Asparagirl
Athena
Balloon Juice
Ted Barlow
Belligerent Bunny Blog
Bennett's Omphalos
The Beauty of Gray
Bitter Girl
Tim Blair
Blog Critics
The Bloviator
BoingBoing
Moira Breen
Bucket o' Rants
Mark Byron
Captain Mojo
Chicago Boyz
Chloe and Pete
Cinderallabloggerfella
Claremont Institute
C-log
Cold Fury
Command Post
The Corner
Coyote at the Dog Show
Country Store
Crow Blog
Cut on the Bias
Dack
Daddy Warblogs
Dawson
Nick Denton
Doc Searls
Dr. Weevil
Dodgeblog
Charles Dodgson
A Dog's Life
Dreaded Purple Master
dropscan
The Edge of England's Sword
Electrolite
&c
Gary Farber
Fimoculous
Flit
Fly Bottle
Freedom and Whisky
Geek Life
Jonah Goldberg
Grasshoppa
Happy Fun Pundit
Harry's Place
Hawk Girl
John Hawkins
Rick Heller
Jim Henley
Heretical Ideas
Hit and Run
Hoy Story
Diana Hsieh
Iberian Notes
Illuminated Donkey
The Insolvent Republic of Blogistan
Joanne Jacobs
David Janes
Jeff Jarvis
Jarvis's War Log
Christopher Johnson
Junkyard Blog
Kaus Files
Kesher Talk
Kevin's Ideas
Kathy Kinsley
Kolkata Libertarian
Lake Effect
Laughing Hyena
Layman's Logic
Ken Layne
Letter from Gotham
Liberty Punk
Lileks
Brink Lindsey
Brian Linse
John Little
little green footballs
Look Back in Anger
Mean Mr. Mustard
Megan McArdle
Mary Madigan
Man Without Qualities
Merde in France
Mind Over What Matters
more than zero
Charles Murtaugh
Paul Musgrave
MuslimPundit
Newsrack
Dagh Nielsen
Fredrik Norman
No Watermelons
Nuisance
NZ Bear
Dawn "Up Yours" Olsen
Brendan O'Neill
One Hand Clapping
Howard Owens
OxBlog
Pejman
Damian Penny
Photo Dude
Tony Pierce
Daniel Pipes
Pizza Guy Tom
Plato's Cave
Stephen Pollard
Aziz Poonawalla
Porphyrogenitus
Possumblog
Virginia Postrel
Powerline
Peter Pribik
Protein Logic
Public Interest UK
Punk Rock Academy
QuasiPundit
William Quick
Random Jottings
Eric Raymond
Relapsed Catholic
Rantburg
Readheaded Ramblings
Glenn Reynolds
Steven Rubio
Scott Rubush
Samizdata
Craig Schamp
Angie Schultz
Sgt. Stryker
Shark Blog
Siflay Hraka
Rand Simberg
Sine qua Non Pundit
Sneaking Suspicions
Natalie Solent
Sound and Fury
Spoons
Ginger Stampley
Bjorn Staerk
Mark Steyn
Andrew Sullivan
Tacitus
Tal G
Talking Points Memo
Tapped
3Bruces
Tom Tomorrow
Michael Totten
Travelling Shoes
Treacher
Tres Producers
Josh Trevino
Turned up to 11
USS Clueless
VodkaPundit
Volokh Conspiracy
Will Warren
War Liberal
Watch
Matt Welch
Where is Raed?
Bill Whittle
Oliver Willis
Winds of Change
Ye Olde Blogge
Matthew Yglesias
Meryl Yourish

[Timesink]

Eric Alterman!?!??! You LIKE his blog?

[backhoe]

No, that's a list I grabbed off TheBlogsofWar...

[fporretto]

Blogs are worthy in exact proportion to their competitiveness.

What's largely undermined Old Media journalism is their sense of elevation, such that they need no longer bother their old gray heads about accuracy, objective presentation, or respect for the intelligence of the reader. A blogger can't afford that; there are too many competitors waiting to take his readership.

As with talk radio, blogs lean in the libertarian/conservative direction. The Old Media must be completely terrified of them. If they acquire a superior reputation for trustworthiness, it could be the beginning of the end for the journalistic superpowers of yore.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You do blogs too?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping!

[backhoe]

You do blogs too?

Funny you mention that- while I really think blogs are the new wave of the internet, I still find more than enough right here that I tend to forget to read them!

And while I set up a couple of my own blogs a while back, I have virtually nothing on them, since I figure few people will ever see them, compared to what I write about, or link to, here.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I wouldn't have time to read many blogs or maintain my own! I can barely read all I get pings for!

In fact I am not getting everything read! There is just too much going on right now!

[backhoe]

I wouldn't have time to read many blogs or maintain my own! I can barely read all I get pings for! In fact I am not getting everything read...

I have the same problem- I try to mention occasionally to people that one reason I don't respond to every reply to me is that my "comments to you" box is so full that if I reply to each one it will get so overloaded that I will miss even more than I do already.