Read and then comment
This is a rebuttal. I am joining with a legion of others, anonymous but public in our actions. We do not agree with the premise that bloggers are akin to terrorists. In this post 9/11 age, such labels are not on our wish lists. You have done each of us harm, through your opinion based on supposition. This is a rebuttal.
The larger daily newspapers today carried a story on a new book about to be published by a university professor in communications at a Canadian institution, wherein he compares bloggers to Don Quixote. He describes us (and I am placing myself squarely in the collectivity) as lonely and isolated, writing sermons that no one is going to hear. And on, and on. I don’t have a copy of his book, although I’d be happy to read through and critique a copy, should he care to send one this way. At 165 pages, I could finish it before bedtime and have my article written in no time at all; after I finish today’s blog entry, of course.
You see, that’s where I take offense. To say there are sixty million bloggers (a conservative estimate) and then not take the time to a) read their articles and b) take the time to meet them as individuals means that our erudite professor is speaking is vague generalities. If you will, writing a sermon that no one is going to hear. In plain speak, calling the kettle black, safe in one’s identity as a pot.
Maybe it’s the rare air on his campus. Or, just maybe, he wishes he had the freedom from editorial constraint that he is (possibly) under. The hardcover price of close to $100 must have left him with some restrictions on what he could say. But I’m only guessing, here in my lonely basement. I’m not commenting on a book I haven’t read; I’m commenting on an article carried in the mainstream press that quotes him. Now if some newspaper would only quote me, my life would be full.
