In the Magical Land of 2002
Some people just refuse to live in the now. For a great perspective on blogging–circa March, 2002–check out Bruce Kluger of USAToday and Parenting magazine (no thanks to Atrios):
… On Aug. 8, Connecticut businessman Ned Lamont defeated U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary, a triumph widely credited to the rah-rah racket produced by pro-Lamont armies stationed along the Internet.
Indeed, the bloggers had scored big. They had helped vault a local politician to national prominence and cemented the Iraq war as Issue No. 1 in the congressional elections. Not a bad day.
But their victory was short-lived. Even before the primary, Lieberman announced that, should he lose, he’d still run in November as an independent. This electoral chutzpah effectively rope-a-doped the bloggers and recharged the senator’s fabled Joe-mentum. Lieberman’s still the man to beat in the general election.
If this wasn’t enough to drain the effervescence from the blogger bubbly, America’s noisy Web wags were dealt an even more sobering blow 10 days later when Snakes on a Plane opened nationwide to a decidedly flat $15.3 million box office.
Before its premiere, Snakes had been the latest blogger darling, as swarms of online film geeks prematurely crowned it the summer’s big sleeper. This hyperventilating fan base even convinced Snakes’ distributor, New Line Cinema, to up the movie’s rating to R, to ensure a gorier, more venomous snake fest. …
Apart from the tenuous connection between “Snakes On A Plane” and Joe Lieberman’s campaign (there *is* one, but Bruce missed it), this is just the most useless kind of fluff. At least birds can use dryer lint to line their nests. If missing the point were the hammer throw, this guy would be wearing a kilt. (? Yeah, I don’t know, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.) At best, this guy reminds me of the blowhard in-law of some friends who expounds in detail on a topic of his choosing, but to a depth of about 3/16 of an inch. How is Kluger’s rant off base? Let me count the ways… actually, don’t. Don’t let me count the ways.
Anyway, it’s this week’s Moment In Irrelevance.
August 30, 2006 at 8:05 pm
On the same day BK publishes his blog putdown, bloggers manage to put the pressure on the Senate and ferret out pork lover Ted Stevens, who put a hold on the Coburn/Obama bill for government spending transparency.
So stick that in your hat, Big Kluger.
August 31, 2006 at 12:43 am
Yeah! In your hat!
An excellent point; one of many that would form a long line connecting Kluger’s elbow to his ass.
The thing — okay, one of the things — that really toasts me on this story (and the hundreds of others like it) is that it deliberately dismisses the *only* people who actually have a say in this: THE VOTERS OF CONNECTICUT. Not one single “blogger” (behave, children, or I’ll feed you to the blogger) voted for Lamont… unless they were registered to vote in the Nutmeg kingdom.
Gah. We could go on and on.
Which reminds me! We should get together sometime and go on and on. Let us know if you ever get sprung for a DL event in Denver.
August 31, 2006 at 1:14 pm
I keep meaning to go to DL, but never do. I get tired easily these days. Plus it’s all the way downtown, etc. etc. excuse after excuse.
Really, I’m just anxious about meeting new people. I’d prefer to go with my husband so I have someone to talk to if you all are boring pricks.
Someday.