A Swim in the Blogosphere

There are at least two theories about learning to swim.  One is to become gradually acclimated to the water, to the feel of it, and to the effects of buoyancy before taking those first few tenuous strokes.  The other is to have someone unceremoniously toss you into the deep end of the pool.  Sink or swim, pal, it's in your hands now.

I am an advocate of the first method.  Mike Willard, not so gentle, probably prefers the latter.  That's how I find myself writing a blog - or contributing to one, anyway.  You see, I don't generally read blogs, and I don't have much respect for most that I have read, so it isn't something that I felt I would ever be likely to do.

Mike tells me to think of this exercise not as a blog but as a jointly written column, like Evans & Novak, except that those two particular writers are dead, whereas Willard & Lewis both have pulses. 

That's why Mike's a great PR guy: He knows how to describe a Great White shark in such a way as to make you want to pet it. 

I admit that my distaste for blogs is not wholly rational.  Some bloggers are bright, insightful people with news to report or useful analysis to offer.  Most, though, seem to be blowhards with personal agendas, many of which run counter, shall we say, to the norms of polite society.

Newspapers require money to pay the printer, they have to appeal to an audience, attract advertisers and have some degree of business sense.  Newspaper writers and editors, in the great majority of cases, ascribe to and endeavor to comply with the ethics of the journalism profession. 

The Internet is not only killing printed newspapers and forcing them to become part of 'new media', it's blurring the lines that once separated the journalist from the madman on the corner who preaches that the world's ills are primarily due to a global conspiracy of Jews and Masons (Disclosure:  I am a Master Mason, and I have never met a brother Mason interested in, much less capable of, participating in a global conspiracy).

Early in the Internet era, the journalism community was playing with the concept of 'community journalism' - that is, allowing readers to write stories.  The theory was that the public knew best what was going on at the local level.  That was rubbish, in my opinion, but it had its brief day in the sun before fading away, as faddish things do.

As the Internet developed, e-mail and message boards became popular, and popular culture dealt a body blow to the English language.  Few in the online world took care about grammar, punctuation, or usage, preferring to express themselves with cute 'emoticons', 'smileys', and acronyms like OMG and ROFL.  As a writer, editor and proofreader, my toes curled. 

Today, few in my office can write a proper business letter, and even I can't remember when I last handwrote and mailed a personal note.  The Internet age has done more than change the way we communicate - it has made it freestyle: less formal, less careful and somehow less civilized.  I mourn.

Web logs, or blogs as they are now popularly known, are now picked up by automated search engines and posted to news compilations, like Google News. Caveat Emptor: the news story you read may not be legitimate.  It may be a news parody (like The Onion), or an unsubstantiated, even falsified story carried on a blog.  For me, this is more than a consumer protection issue.  It's a sign that real journalism and reportorial integrity is under attack.

That's why I'm cautious of blogs, and hesitated to write for one.  My belief is that this will be one of the good blogs, one written by bright, insightful people with news to report or useful analysis to offer.  It we stray from that, please tell me. 

At least for now, though, I'll t