Category Archives: Internet

Part II: American Newspapers Dying Of Self-Inflicted Wounds. Good.

Affirmative Action, English, Internet, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media

Why is the newspaper industry moribund and, we hope, beyond resuscitation? Veteran journalist William Murchison tells the story “of a profession invaded and subjugated by a type of journalist far less like the average reader than like, well, the members of a political science seminar at an upscale Eastern or West Coast university. That’s irrespective of whether such journalists ever caught sight of a college seminar room.”

“They tended to see journalism as a platform for identifying, investigating, exposing, and addressing social and political grievances: such grievances as often enough the customers didn’t see for themselves, but here was a new breed of newsmen to show them what they had missed.”

“The old-style newspaperman whom I came to know face to face in the ’60s was a differently colored nag. He — he usually was that — had far likelier attended a state school than Yale or Harvard or Berkeley, assuming he went to college at all. He was jocular and irreverent in a newspaperly sort of way. Never slugged down a drink of whiskey he didn’t like. Dressed with minimal attention to fashion.”

[SNIP]

I know exactly of what Murchison speaks. Back when I attended journalism school, my lecturers were tough, middle-aged, ex-army men (no women, mercifully). They smoked, drank, and dressed in rugged jeans. They taught you how to write a mean lead (or “lede”). If it didn’t spell out the Who, Where, What, When, and How of the story—well, you heard about it. If the superlatives flowed and your prose was flowery instead of succinct—you were mocked. You were taught a craft, not an ideology—although it was well understood that the richness of your frame of reference would enhance your writing.

“After Watergate,” continues Murchison, “the paradigmatic reporter was a man — or, now, a woman — with a high-minded mission; namely to instruct society concerning its tastes and habits; to improve things. No problem there — a little improvement never hurt anyone. Problems arose only when the bearer of news arrived at the home of the recipient of news with the look of a doctor preparing a rabies injection.”

The complete, American-Spectator story is “Authors of Their Own Doom.”

Part I of the post: “American Newspapers Dying Of Self-Inflicted Wounds. Good.”

Updated: The Loathsome Liberal ‘Shshaun’ Is Back

Barely A Blog, IlanaMercer.com, Internet, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Private Property

The loathsome ‘Shshaun’ is back

I thought I recognized his style, but I assured myself that no one could be as brazen as to sneak back onto this space after being told never to come back pursuant to performances such as this one on Jewcy.com, (look for posts by ‘Shshaun’; he fouled up the discussion board), and this, an example of his early “efforts.”

Yes, it seems that the loathsome Canadian ‘Shshaun’ has snuck back onto this forum, after being ousted. This worm now goes by the name “Gumdrops.” His IP numbers can be traced from here:

Bell Canada BELLCANADA-16 (NET-76-64-0-0-1)
76.64.0.0 – 76.71.255.255
Sympatico HSE HSE20070629-CA (NET-76-67-12-0-1)
76.67.12.0 – 76.67.15.255

I thought I recognized the grating style. (Likening his own “thinking” to that of Socrates in an erased post was the real give-away.)

The next step is a stalking complaint and a letter to abuse@sympatico.ca.

Please, y’all, re-read the posting policy, and always provide a real e-mail address when posting to this blog.

Update (May 26): Liberals believe that they can trespass and trash private property—corporeal or other—and still demand that their identities remain private. That’s rich—and that’s a reality in the universe loathsome ‘Shshaun’ shares with the likes of Rev. Wright, Obama, and his lowly Mama.

Not on this mama’s property.

Here’s an excerpt from our Posting Policy: “No information or content of any kind that you submit or make available to ILANA MERCER, or post to BarelyABlog.com, shall be deemed confidential.”

Of course, most posters to BAB are honorable. Therefore their host honors their privacy.

Updated: The Loathsome Liberal 'Shshaun' Is Back

Barely A Blog, IlanaMercer.com, Internet, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Private Property

The loathsome ‘Shshaun’ is back

I thought I recognized his style, but I assured myself that no one could be as brazen as to sneak back onto this space after being told never to come back pursuant to performances such as this one on Jewcy.com, (look for posts by ‘Shshaun’; he fouled up the discussion board), and this, an example of his early “efforts.”

Yes, it seems that the loathsome Canadian ‘Shshaun’ has snuck back onto this forum, after being ousted. This worm now goes by the name “Gumdrops.” His IP numbers can be traced from here:

Bell Canada BELLCANADA-16 (NET-76-64-0-0-1)
76.64.0.0 – 76.71.255.255
Sympatico HSE HSE20070629-CA (NET-76-67-12-0-1)
76.67.12.0 – 76.67.15.255

I thought I recognized the grating style. (Likening his own “thinking” to that of Socrates in an erased post was the real give-away.)

The next step is a stalking complaint and a letter to abuse@sympatico.ca.

Please, y’all, re-read the posting policy, and always provide a real e-mail address when posting to this blog.

Update (May 26): Liberals believe that they can trespass and trash private property—corporeal or other—and still demand that their identities remain private. That’s rich—and that’s a reality in the universe loathsome ‘Shshaun’ shares with the likes of Rev. Wright, Obama, and his lowly Mama.

Not on this mama’s property.

Here’s an excerpt from our Posting Policy: “No information or content of any kind that you submit or make available to ILANA MERCER, or post to BarelyABlog.com, shall be deemed confidential.”

Of course, most posters to BAB are honorable. Therefore their host honors their privacy.

Updated: On Bloggerel

Barely A Blog, IlanaMercer.com, Internet, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist

I resisted blogging with all my might. In August 2002, I wrote this in “The Importance of Boundaries”:

“Virginia Postrel appears to confer the web-diary with a mystic, cosmic rhythm, calling it ‘one of the most interesting new spontaneous orders in the world of the Web.’ … The fact that millions of people are moved to mouth daily on the web is no more significant than the fact that billions of humans have a bowel movement every day.”

“Chances are that if you are blogging, a part of you believes that your impromptu daily thoughts ought to be public. Chances are you are not terribly concerned that, of the cyberspace ejaculate you emit, stuff will come back to haunt you like a nasty paternity suit.”

Unfortunately, I was in no position to let this expression of spontaneous disorder pass me by. Ann Coulter is in that position; I’m not. Probably never will be. So here I am. (Still, this blogger “speaks” only “when she has something to say,” to comport with my daughter’s description of her mom years back. Which is why this is Barely a Blog.)

Thomas Fleming has had a similar experience. Here are his impressions of the blogosphere and its intellectually disemboweling effects:

“… answering the blog-responders is like arguing with a retarded child who thinks breaking wind is a witty response.”

“I described the blogger mentality as a form of Narcissism, but even that is a compliment. Narcissus was so handsome that he fell in love with his own reflection. The proper parallel would be the writers and political intellectuals who are so brilliant and clever that they have fallen in love with their own voices, but bloggers are like a hideously ugly person who looks in the mirror and says: ‘The rat’s looking good.’ [Note, I have to check the quotation from the recent film of Charlotte’s Web, which I watched on a flight to Rome.]”

“… if we took the trouble to start a conversation, the blogospheroids would jump in, agreeing or disagreeing–it hardly matters–with opinions by the truckload. This might not be so bad, if the truck were not a garbage truck.”

The post is “Silly Chickens and Rotten Eggs.” As with all Dr. Fleming’s writing, it’s well-worth the read.

Update (March 22): This is not to say that there aren’t good blogs; I’d hope BAB is one. Rather, the objection here is to the meta-process the web diary stands for–the loose, let-it-all-hang out, diarrheic process of diarizing in public, as I said in the essay, has broken down boundaries between the private and public:

“The upshot of populism in punditry, at least, is that bad commentary is promiscuously outed. Few and far between are the commentators and conversationalists who have honed their craft.”