Let Me Elaborate

On the occasion of Dan Rather's final broadcast, Eric Black of the Strib has a piece in today's paper on the role of bloggers in regional politics.

Powerline writes about it, too, and is highly critical. Black mentioned Hugh Hewitt's reserving a domain, "swarmthestrib.com", with the mission of"...scrutiniz[ing] the Star Tribune in a bloggish tactic called "swarming...". The Powerguys respond:

We've regularly devoted ourselves to criticism of the Star Tribune over the past three years. And we've actually -- not hypothetically -- been personally attacked -- mugged -- both on the news and editorial pages of the Star Tribune in the past six months, but Black doesn't get around to mentioning that, which might provide a fuller context for his discussion of the "bloggish" tactic of "swarming."

As to my two cents - well, read on.

I had a brief conversation with Black on Monday afternoon, and am quoted in the piece.

Black notes:

Radio host Hugh Hewitt recently announced on HughHewitt.com that he had reserved the Web address "swarmingthestrib.com" and proposed that bloggers from across the country agree to jointly post "a daily digest of commentary on the lapses in objectivity and the flights of lefty fancy that the paper daily indulges."

Star Tribune Editor Anders Gyllenhaal said it was clear from Hewitt's posting that he doesn't read the paper, but he said the editors welcome constructive criticism. "If someone can find a new way of enlightening readers, then my attitude is: the more the merrier," Gyllenhaal said.

It's fairly clear that Gyllenhaal doesn't listen to Hewitt; Hugh has a pretty well-developed network of people feeding him information, even if he doesn't read the Strib.

As to the new website - well, that was the crux of our conversation. Back to Black:

Mitch Berg, a Twin Cities-based blogger (shotinthedark.info) said the local allies of Hewitt, known as the Northern Alliance, have decided that there is already so much Star Tribune criticism being posted by local bloggers -- notably on anti-strib.blogspot.com -- that "there's no need to start a formal site to do this."

Let me elaborate on this.

I thought about Hugh's idea really hard. I like the idea. As a blogger, I've certainly spent a lot of time beating on the Strib - fact-checking stories that needed it, fisking columnists, providing a missing countervailing perspective on many stories, and even occasionally complementing the Strib's reporting. I've been one of a big swarm of internet pamphleteers, using whatever expertise I have to bite off a little corner of the task of holding the Star/Tribune accountable. Alone, I'm not much. But together with the dozens of regional bloggers, big and small, that make up one of the country's most fertile blogging communities, we do provide an alternative.

But taking on a whole new site, fully dedicated to swarming the Strib would involve devoting a lot of time to making sure that everything the site put out was airtight. If I blogged for a living - if I had a sugadaddy like George Soros, like so many leftybloggers do - then it'd be no problem. I'd be happy to help run a site that gathered together the far-flung expertises of dozens of bloggers, made sure that the material beat the Strib at its own game (was fact-checked and credible enough to stand behind) and aimed at the Strib. I think it'd be a worthwhile venture; frankly, I think the Twin Cities need such a venture. If someone out there wants to sponsor it to the point where I can quit my day job, let me know.

Because I wouldn't want it to be done half-right. The Strib - as an institution, as opposed to a newsroom - needs to be swarmed, for its own good as well as the state's. There are certainly excellent reporters at the Strib - Eric Black is one of them - but the Star/Tribune's institutional voice is biased far to the left of center, elitist (in a way that wears the populism of the likes of the likes of Floyd Olson like an ill-fitting T-shirt - the slogans are there, but they're stretched way out of shape) and frequently arrogant to a fault. And to credibly counter that, with the voice of one single blog (as opposed to the dozens, maybe hundreds that assail the Strib every time they screw the pooch today) would not only be a lot of work (not that I mind that), but would contradict the great strength of blogs; the huge, decentralized mass of discontiguous talents and expertises that countervails the "high priests of knowledge" model the mainstream media represent; the constantly-changing marketplace of information, and the informal, market-driven rising and falling levels of credibility of the various sources; the amorphous, intangible web of thought and effort that the major media can't ignore, can't poo-pooh, and can't seem to beat.

I'd love to be involved in a "Swarm the Strib" organization. In fact, I already am.

Posted by Mitch at March 9, 2005 07:58 AM | TrackBack