I have never read a Mickey Kaus article. Ever. I must have started blogging too late. But I never cared about him and have never even followed a link to him. It’s been four years since I’ve even seen anyone discussing Kaus. Of course, I’m a bit unusual. I didn’t discover Eschaton until late 2004 and I have never gone to Huffington Post unless I’ve been directed there by someone else. I never really have read too many blogs and despite wanting to help spread the traffic around, I prefer to link directly to the sources I am discussing, which are most often established media outlets.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
My blog surfing is also limited; I frequent less than 10 sites daily, a few of them repeatedly. At one point, I think I had more than 30 blogs listed in my Favorites but, over time, I’ve whittled them down to the sources I care to read. I basically have my own opinions and don’t need to clutter my mind up with too many others. har. Some of the economics blogs I used to follow just got too darn depressing.
I was an early Eschaton follower but gave him up about a year ago when I quite suddenly realized he rarely had anything of substance to say. He used to provide great linkage but not so much anymore. I scan HuffPo and dailyKos, maybe every other day, mainly to see what they think is important. Sometimes I will read a diary or an article they put up. The only political blogs I follow daily are Booman Tribune and Talking Points Memo. I remember to visit Kevin Drum and Washington Monthly every three or four days. All the rest of my daily Favorites are diverting and amusing pop cultural reviews like i09 and Jezebel. I also follow the postings of Neil Gaiman and a couple of other writers and artists.
My primary source for current events is Google News. I never, ever click on any link related to Fox News no matter how tantalizing the headline may be. I often click thru to a major media outlet but only long enough to find a link to whatever they are reporting so that I can read it for myself.
As for Mickey Kaus, I only vaguely recall his name and attach a bad taste to it. If he does or says something important, I’ll rely on you or TPM to bring it to my attention.
Wow – you just described my own browsing habits as well. Love Google News for a quick glimpse of so-called “major” stories. Pop over to DK only when truly bored and have run through everything on BT and Google News and am still hungry, which isn’t often.
And I remain distressed by the short attention span theater of the coming generations. I read a book on the train in the morning and people look at it like it’s some foreign object. Really sad.
Similar to me. I read the NYT if time allows but go to Google News for a quick scan of headlines. I read Atrios when directed there by link. I do read dkos daily and here of course.
I can’t imagine what he’s thinking, but I’m thinking it’s pretty funny. Boxer is probably the most popular Dem elected official in the state.
If he’d run for Gov instead he’d probably at least get more protest votes.
Not with conservatives..! They’ll take DiFi over Boxer any day.
This points out the failure of the internet to deliver primary reporting outside of websites for established media outlets. Which would be great except that primary reporting in the hands of some reporters becomes all the facts the boss wants printed. For example, the Wall Street Journal, which in the 1970s had straight up reporting is slowly becoming Murdochized.
All so true. Talking Points Memo, however, does have some feet on the ground who report thru Marshall’s filter. And, I have come across rare blogs that are written by someone who actually goes to their local courthouse to gather daily news. I guess we need more citizen-journalists…
Now, I’ll add this: When a major event occurs — before the mass media has managed to do more than throw up a headline — dailyKos will already have a long string of comments in an Open Thread diary about it. Most of those comments are scroll-on-by worthless but very many of them are reports from people who have direct info. I’m thinking of the uprising in Iran after their last election, about hurricanes bearing down on coastlines, about earthquakes, etc. In these cases, I get raw news faster from dKos than from any other source. You get some people at the scene and thousands more searching the web for any shred of info. That’s pretty awesome.
There is a long-standing “cult of manhood” amongst fighter pilots and the armed services culture maintains it. Drone pilot operators are regarded as video gameplayers and therefore not in the same league.
Your observations are spot on. Some of the big tough fighter jocks should be a little embarassed at the kudos heaped on them for what is equivalent to a “Sunday drive”. But what the heck, they’ll take the credit. That’s what keeps the cult of manhood alive.
Yes, I am aware that I am mostly spamming comments. Here’s one that’s a bit better than usual though.
I think this really is the difference. Maybe the dead-tree media bloggers like Ezra or even official ones like Drum or Benen adopt a tone more like yours in terms of attitude toward Obama. Well Marshall too, but who the hell knows what Josh Marshall actually thinks of things and Atrios has not written a passionate blog post since the beginning of time.
You certainly are the outlier in terms of pure-blogger reaction to him. I wonder if that’s why? Your main blog circle is traditional media and the bloggers attached to it who tend to adopt a more moderate tone (not content) compared to the citizen or pure-bloggers.