Now, I don’t mean to obsess with The Line, KNME’s local news analysis roundtable. Still, as one of the four people who watch and are not related to the participants, I feel a right to respond (and, there, my friends, is the force that powers most blogs).

Fellow blogger Chantal Foster was the guest participant this week. At about the same time that I founded www.edgewiseblog.com as a blog collective and host, Chantal founded the more widely viewed www.dukecityfix.com, of which I am a lapsed contributor. Chantal writes about her experience on theFix, of course.

It was interesting to hear Steve Lawrence’s somewhat pointed question to Chantal of “what can one get from a blog that one can’t get from, say, the Albuquerque Journal?” (Ignoring that the Journal itself has several blogs.) Interesting, in part, because Lawrence’s own alternative paper, Crosswinds Weekly, folded and was not particularly lamented by most of theFix’s commenters. Chantal mentioned timeliness and community dialog with diverse views. I might add that bloggers preserve links to various sources of information and opinion. Tomorrow’s Journal may not have any connection to today’s outside of the comics page. Miss a story and it sinks forever in the paper sea. Bloggers paper our houses with the little shiny bits you might have missed. We are archivists extending the life of topics beyond our own short attention spans.

What can you get from blogs that you can’t get from newspapers? Relief from whole pages of nothing but ads. More bluntly, most of us do this for free while the Journal expects you to pay to see the ads that accompany the content you can read elsewhere. (Yeah, yeah, “you get what you pay for,” etc.)

Dimdahl reminded us of the overthrow of Dan Rather in the blogosphere’s version of a Swift Boat drive-by. He may want to read the more contemporary (The Left, Online and Outraged By David Finkel).

I notice that Steve Lawrence spends too much time emulating Charlie Rose, though he’s not nearly as obnoxious. Rule one in all conversations: shut up and listen. If you can’t do that, then start a blog instead of a talk show. But Steve disdains blogs.

In a nice bit of synchronicity, a letter I wrote ended the Line. Calling me “MH” (it’s “MJH”, thank you very much) and failing to mention my own blog, Steve read a portion of my letter (leaving out the more intellectual part). I asked why no one on the panel the week before had challenged Dimdahl’s distortion of the ACLU’s position on languages other than English in the workplace. Amazingly, rather than answer why no one had anything to say — even in agreement with Dimdahl — Lawrence gave it to Dimdahl to respond. Johnny sputtered about how he wished he could speak several languages and “I don’t think I was wrong.” Strong words, indeed. I would ask Dimdahl if he really believes the ACLU supports my right to speak German at work 8 hours a day or, rather, opposes my employer claiming the right to punish me for ever using German at work. Just as my views of Dimdahl’s Rio Grande Foundation should be suspect, so, too, are Dimdahl’s views of the ACLU. More so, since no one pays me for my biases. mjh