The Net, relationships

and credible information by Steve Lawrence, Editor of Crosswinds Weekly

Blogs are the New Journalism, the new sources for

information for the masses, the new News. Blogs and those Internet hangouts, share some glaring and disturbing

commonalities. Each is a high�tech substitute for a bedrock social or intellectual institution. Each poses as its

predecessor. And each is profoundly different in ways that are changing the culture � and not for the better. Each is

diluting, if not perverting, the quality, intensity � reliability, if you will � of the institutions they are quickly

replacing.

It’s a little ironic that Steve Lawrence used an opinion piece to denigrate the entire

blogosphere. He reminds me of those bloggers, mainly conservatives, who completely dismiss the “MSM” (Mainstream Media) as archaic. Both

extremes are ridiculous.

With millions of people blogging, we can find anecdotal evidence we need to support any argument. Suffice

it to say, you used to have to be a Steve Lawrence to get your opinion out there and now that’s no longer necessary. The Internet has

opened up communication world-wide, the Web has put a printing press in every person’s hands, and the blogosphere is a public forum as

faulty as any group of people.

While there are just a handful of print publications in Albuquerque, there are several dozen very good blogs.

If Steve’s editorial were a blog entry, you

could easily add your reaction *now*. In such a case, we might see hundreds of people from anywhere in the world participating in a real

discussion, instead of waiting a week for Steve to print his favorite letter-to-the-editor.

Ironically, when Steve’s column is 6

days old, the paper version will never be seen again. Whereas, linked from a blog entry, it could find new readers to appreciate and

appraise it. Most of my blog entries involve excerpts from and links to items from the MSM that I think my readers may have missed; some

find them months after the original item has sunk beneath the constantly growing mound of “news.” Often, I don’t include any opinion at

all, though as often, my opinion is probably obvious. But, by linking to the source that stimulated my thoughts, I let you decide for

yourself.

I have a place in my daily life for both old and new media. If Lawrence completely dismisses new media for being beneath

his dignity, he’s depriving himself, as is his right. But his wholesale dismissal comes across as a bit self-serving (as is my defense

of blogging, you’ll note). mjh

Update 1/26/06: mjh�s blog — A Moment of Silence for Crosswinds Weekly