10.29.05
More metablogging, using Forbes’ “Attack of The Blog”
I’m still getting used to this whole blogging thing (again), and I can’t help observing how a subject or a story gets bounced around the blogoshere. A great example is the Forbes hit-piece on blogging as a concept: Attack of the Blogs. I first found this story through Dan Gillmore post on the subject (again).
I do believe it is a hit-piece, maybe even an intentional troll to bait the blogging community into proving the main point of the article.
Even more sinister, the whole article could be an intentional setup for more political legislation down the road. The concluding paragraph of the article is:
Halpern has had less luck getting anyone inCongress to listen to his plaint. He says that may change if a few politicians get a taste of what he has gone through. “Wait until the next election rolls around and these bloggers start smearing people who are up for reelection,”Halpern says. “Maybe then things will start to happen.”
Ah, yes. These “things” that will start to happen is FEC regulation of political blogs that was floated a few months ago. I’m more cynical than most and I fully expect another hard push for such regulation between the ‘06 and ‘08 elections. This Forbes article, and the blogging community’s response to it, will be a reference point in support of such regulation.
I was also interested in how the story spread across the blogosphere. Ed Cone linked to the Forbes story with a brief description, which was updated later with a couple blog links.
I agree with the Forbes article in that the blogosphere really can be one giant echo chamber, where dozens or hundreds of blogs all link to a story and to each others posts about the story. A good example is Blogebrity’s post on the topic. That’s bizarre. That’s a blog about blogs!
Closer to my home, there another example of blogoshere navel-gazing: Triangle Blogwatch, which describes itself this way:
About This Blog
Tar Heel Blogwatch spotlights notable posts by bloggers in the Triangle and Eastern North Carolina.
How do you line up a gig like that? You read a bunch of blogs, write blog entries about your blog surfing — and get paid to do it. Sign me up. I’m very qualified for that job.
All this activity on the Forbes article and the recent activity on the Miers withdrawal makes me wonder about the whole blogosphere concept.
An don’t think I don’t know that I just made a post about blogs that do nothing but post links to other blogs, while doing nothing but linking to other blogs. The irony is not lost on me. My navel is lint-free.
