January 12, 2004
BLOGS IN THE NEWS
Spanish bloggers HispaLibertas pull apart a Wired article on Spanish bloggers. Key paragraph:
Blogs are becoming important in Spain (although, sadly, much less than this article implies) for exactly the same reasons why they are becoming important everywhere else: dynamism, directness and a fresh perspective than the one found on traditional Spanish media, which is almost monolithically positioned on the left side of the political spectrum. Sadly, most if not all the blogs quoted in this article, share that position: on the oil spill, on the war, on the nazi, war-mongering Bush-puppet government of Aznar, on the evil Americans and the super-evil Jews … and just about everything else.
More positively, Jack Kelly in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette credits John Cole’s sharp observation:
Web logger John Cole noted a fascinating difference between the news accounts accusing Halliburton of overcharging on a contract to deliver oil in Iraq, and the accounts of Halliburton's subsequent exoneration.
Halliburton’s interests in Iraq are substantially less complicated than voting in the Australian Blog Awards:
To vote you will have to email me to request a ballot paper, which will be emailed to you ASAP. You will then be required to fill out the ballot paper and email it back. PLEASE NOTE that the system being used for these awards are the Optional Preferential Voting System (the ballot paper will have more information about this).
What's next? DNA samples from all the nominees? It’s easier for a terrorist to migrate to the US.
UPDATE. Tim Russert and guests are currently blabbing about blogs on Meet the Press. They seem confused.
UPDATE II. Jeff Jarvis rates Meet the Press.
Posted by Tim Blair at January 12, 2004 02:28 AMDon't you kind of assume that the mailing thing is to ensure voters have an Australian address?
And don't you kind of assume that's to make sure it isn't won by any bloggers with as large or larger an international following, but rather, remains devoted to the parochial concerns of bloggers who aren't known outside Australia and barely within?
Just a guess. What do I know, I live in Chicago.
Posted by: Mike G at January 12, 2004 at 02:52 AMBlog Award things are stupid and pointless unless there is cash involved. Are cash prizes going to the winners? If not, I wouldn't get too excited over this nonsense -- especially since it seems skewed to the trendy-lefty side of the Aussie blog spectrum.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 12, 2004 at 03:36 AMI'm not sure there's a political bent to these awards, such as they are. They're no big deal, as even the organisers would admit. Just some harmless onliney fun.
That being said, unless my candidates win, I will kill everybody on earth.
"Web logger"? Is he an internet lumberjack? Oh well, close enough I guess.
Posted by: scott h. at January 12, 2004 at 03:52 AMJust remembered the etymology of "blog". I'm an idiot, nevermind.
Posted by: scott h. at January 12, 2004 at 03:53 AMHey Tim:
Here's an even better one: On Stephanopoulos' show, I hear that Wesley Clark is going to to a kind of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" thing by giving live play-by-play sniping and commentary during an address by Bush.
it really sounds quite ridiculous.
I just want to point out that I'm reading this site and leaving this comment using my new BlackBerry device, and doing so for no reason other than that I can. What a marvelous technological age in which we live. That is all.
Posted by: greg at January 12, 2004 at 09:07 AMI just want to point out that I'm reading this site and leaving this comment using my new BlackBerry device, and doing so for no reason other than that I can. What a marvelous technological age in which we live. That is all.
Posted by: greg at January 12, 2004 at 09:10 AMHey Tim:
Speaking of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Jack Kelly, you should check out this column of his from Nov. 30th: Hatred of the Jews is a disease that won't go away. Here's the nut graf:
But the number of the world's opinion leaders who give a damn about the Kurds or the Chechens wouldn't fill a telephone booth. Palestinians are loved because they are the only people on the planet who can, with any degree of plausibility, claim to be oppressed by Jews.
Am I the only one struck by the difficulty of e-mailing a paper ballot?
Posted by: Doug at January 12, 2004 at 01:54 PMThey want all that shit because we stacked that "Most Obnoxious Blogger in the World" poll in a manner that would put an inner Sydney Labor Party branch to shame: "Vote Early and Often!)
(Habib came 2nd, dammit!)
Posted by: Pedro the Ignorant at January 12, 2004 at 09:32 PM