Wednesday, October 20, 2004

A Blogging Panel

Last evening at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, three of the most renowned bloggers appeared on the same stage to discuss the emerging medium: Ana Marie Cox of Wonkette, John Hinderaker of Powerline, and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of dailykos.

When I was working in Washington earlier this year, I thought Wonkette was required reading. Her commentary on the DC political scene is hilarious. She was a good tonic for a day of taking everything extremely seriously. I’ve mentioned before that I read Powerline regularly. I don’t read Kos at the moment, largely because I prefer Brad DeLong’s website for my daily dose of “here’s a smart guy left of center who disagrees with me on a lot of things.” Throw in Andrew Sullivan and (now) Marginal Revolution, and you’ve got my regulars.

One of Hinderaker’s blogging partners has a post on the event, in which he relates some of the Q&A. I thought this one was particularly interesting:

Q. Does blogging really matter; not that many people read them?

A. Readership is greater than you think. Moreover, the readers we get are important for our purposes -- opinion shapers (Rocket); journalists (Wonkette); fellow activists (Kos).

The post also has a link to an account of the event in a local paper. Let’s hope this is one of the first of many more instances where leaders of the new medium come together to provide their thoughts about how and why they use it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am suprised that you don't read Glenn Reynolds (www.instapundit.com) or Jeff Jarvis (www.buzzmachine.com). They both do a good job, though there is sometimes marked tension between the two. Jarvis is a left-of-center guy who is earnest enough, and Glenn is a social liberal, else conservative, who has all-around interesting things to say. Both are worthwhile.

I would also add Eugene Volokh & friends to that list over at the Volokh Conspiracy - http://volokh.com. They make great law posts, including a long discourse refuting the argument that Kerry can't run for President under the 14th amendment. (http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_10_14.shtml#1098295109)

-joe

Joe Malchow
jmalchow@dartmouth.edu