Blogs and the Ire of Tobin
Or Floggin’ Blogs
We liked them both.
The WBP found this one via our Brothers-in-Arms Rochester Turning since no one here reads the D&C staff blogs. However, since the WBP seems to have come up in the conversation on a topic near and dear to our hearts we figured it was appropriate to comment.
Tom Tobin, who is stuck in the craw of at least one of the contributors at Rochester Turning for a string of seemingly inane babble, has taken it upon himself to declare the inadequacy of the local blogosphere.
Haven’t had to do this in a while but let’s break Tom down -
The Internet is potentially a political force unlike any ever seen. It links so many millions, and so instantaneously, that a concerted popular movement arising from the vast array of Web networks could effect change in ways and at a speed not before encountered.
True. Recent events, such as the creation of a YouTube channel by Congressman Thomas Reynolds, support this statement.
But what we get on the Web to this point is the opposite: innumerable viewpoints largely scattered to the wind, demanding not change but adherence to political ideologies from tired “liberal” and “conservative” texts, nothing new but just the old said more frequently and at higher decibel.
I cannot speak for other blogs and their efforts to spur change but I do know that the WBP has called for a review of the legitimacy of COMIDA incentives, supported NYS Comptroller DiNapoli in his calls for decreases in state spending, started a petition to voice opposition to the RenSquare project, assisted the office of the NYS Attorney General with an analysis of mutilevel marketing companies, communicated the reality of Rochester school district graduation rates before the availability of state data and identified blatant misrepresentations of the facts by “legitimate” media like the Albany Times Union and, yes Tom, the D&C.
All this occurred in less than six months.
As far as an agenda, retread or otherwise, what are we to think of the editorial fortitude of a paper that partners in private enterprise with the very same public entities that it supposedly monitors and unbiasedly reports on? Conflict of interest anyone?
One more thing that differentiates blogs like the WBP and Mustard Street: the absence of advertisements. I have noticed the increasing presence of ads on many blogs but, personally, the WBP will never try to sell anyone anything. We are not thinking about the bottom line Mr. Tobin and as such we are not beholden to what does or does not drive ad revenue. Given this standard we will never mount fear campaigns based on a non-issue in order to increase readers and clicks; we hope our wit, our concern for what actually matters in New York state and our affinity for mood altering chemicals will do that.
Our guess is that this is another calculated move to increase web traffic, as such we will request that Mr. Tobin come and respond at the WBP if he thinks we do such a lackluster job but we do not expect him.
Tobin calls for fewer viewpoints … and Tobin says that if you are what might be called a traditional liberal or a traditional conservative, don’t bother speaking up. (By the way, I don’t see most blogs that I read as “demanding” adherence to a viewpoint, rather these blogs put forth facts and ideas and ideology, and the reader, and the politicians, still get to choose whether or not they want to follow it.)
See, in Tobin’s view, it’s only the pundits, the grand old wise men of the media who have anything valuable to say (ha!); in Tobin’s view, these are men who are neither liberal nor conservative (ha!) but wise and perceptive and impartial (ha!); and in Tobin’s view, since there are way fewer of them than the “innumerable viewpoints” of the blogs, that is superior to Tobin.
Tobin is basically calling for a stifling of the American right to speak out. He wants to de-legitimize all of these “innumerable viewpoints”. His message is fundamentally un-American — but as much as I disagree with him, I support his right to say it. I also support the blogs’ right to put forth their opinions, vociferously.
Also notice how Tobin contradicts himself in one sentence. He says here are too many viewpoints, all fitting into either a “liberal” or “conservative” text. Well which is it, Mr. Tobin, too many, or just two? How can innumerable viewpoints fit into just two tired texts? My high school English teacher would have taken a lot of points off for that sentence.