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April 5, 2002

Postscript on Alterman Instapundit has a letter from Eric Alterman in which he protests, among other things, that he has “no brief for the ‘credentialed’ media, much less the mainstream media,” and that he thinks blogging is, by and large, a fine thing.

I still think that Alterman’s recent Nation piece, discussed here a few days ago, strayed well over into insinuations about the form in general, but I’m willing to take him at his word on the subject. People are allowed to clarify themselves. (Or, if they’re not, I’m in trouble.)

Alterman compares blogs to the work of I. F. Stone, and Reynolds agrees. I’ve had that thought myself. I. F. Stone’s Weekly (later Bi-weekly) was a fixture in our house when I was growing up, and it used many of the same techniques: quoting the indefensible, questioning the received wisdom, digging for the real facts and figures, all in an irreverent, casual, and fast-moving manner. And there was something valuable about knowing it was all one guy’s work, one quirky individual’s point of view. Stone was indeed wrong on a bunch of stuff, but the world could use a thousand I. F. Stones, each with their own ferocious outlook. The blogiverse isn’t that, yet, but it could be. [12:00 PM]

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Comments on Postscript on Alterman:

Avedon ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2002, 07:57 PM:

And he used to go down and read the Congressional record every day. What a guy!