Jeff Jarvis has crossed over to the Geek Side WordPress (good move!), and he hits the ground running in “Snob.” Some mainstream media person named Bob Cauthorn is blogging and displaying non-blogger-like behavior.
Cauthorn wrote: “Memo to mainstream media: You don’t get to blog…You have a publishing apparatus. So you don’t get to blog. You have a broadcasting apparatus. So you don’t get to blog.”
And Jeff responds:
Who are you, Cauthorn, to say who can and who cannot blog?You are trying to import the worst traits of old, big media — exclusion, snobbishness, the closed club — to citizens’ media. And it is most unbecoming, especially since you served in both worlds, since you yourself are a mainstream media guy who is now, uh, blogging (can you smell the irony, Bob?).
You tell him, Jeff. I may dislike certain liberal bloggers as much as they dislike me, but I wouldn’t dream of telling them they shouldn’t blog or what to blog about, even when they’re blogging negatively about me.
Jeff will be on Pundit Review radio this Sunday.
Well, he just can’t have his white male middle aged editor trying to reach a growing audience, can he? Heaven forbid they try to relate to and connect with a yonger audience.
Jarvis is right, in that Bob just has his panties in a bunch that his role as arbiter of taste, hipness and media trueness isn’t getting the “snaps” he thinks it deserves.
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 07.29.05 @ 8:23 am
Hold on!
I hereby declare Bob Cauthorn the “final authority” on who is permitted to blog.
Furthermore, I empower Bob Cauthorn to track down any offenders of his proclamations and to bring them to justice before his personal court of infallibility.
Moreover, I appoint Bob Cauthorn to oversee both Air America and Newsweek and to take immediate action when he finds cause.
Finally, I authorize Bob Cauthorn to use all powers at his disposal to bring down those with whom he takes issue.
Heliotrope has spoken. (Signed/Sealed/Delivered)
Comment by Heliotrope — 07.29.05 @ 11:13 am
How embarrassing: “Cauthorn” is certainly related to my misspelled and butchered name: “Cotharn.”
Our family descended from poor and often illiterate(and hardheaded!) farmers in the hills of the Scottish/British border - where the farmland wasn’t all that good. As a group, my extended family has never been too smart!
Comment by gcotharn — 07.29.05 @ 12:28 pm
Seems to me there are two possibilities:
1. Cauthorn is trying to be humorous since he has a blog (self-irony and satire)
2. Cauthorn doesn’t have a clue (self-irony and satire)
Funny post La Shawn (as in humorous). Thanks.
(And I managed to get a comment in!)
Comment by Catez — 07.29.05 @ 1:10 pm
[…] already have a means of sharing their views – be it print or radio / TV broadcast. Full post / story here I think La Shawn’s view is correct on this top […]
Pingback by Swap Blog » Who can and can’t blog? — 07.29.05 @ 2:06 pm
I dunno, I think Bob is trying to say that the MSM doesn’t have a clue — missing the cluetrain acually. Just because they have the apparatus, doesn’t mean they “can” (as in having something meaningful to say). I think he has a valid point.
Here’s the money quote:
“The majority of the time, media blogs deliver more staff voices that are already published and broadcast ad-naseum. Occasionally, you might hear from, say, a copy editor or section editor or librarian who otherwise does not make it into print or on the air. And yes, that can have marginal appeal. But it scarcely registers in the big picture because media company blogs adhere to the old top-down, we-talk-you-listen-punk publishing model.
Furthermore, one wonders if spending any staff time writing blogs is a prudent use of resources when American newspapers and broadcasters should be throwing all their energy at fixing the creaky mindset that is losing them audience every day.
Fact: Most major media players couldn’t lose their audience faster if they were chasing them with a stick. And rather than reform and transform, major media – in some kind of manic pratfall – responds by further exposing the public to the very same cast of characters that the audience has already rejected. Staff blogs. Wow.
[SNIP]
For some reason, most of mainstream media doesn’t understand that blogging happens when you don’t have a printing press or a broadcast booth available, but you do have something to say. Nor do they understand that distributing the conversation is one of the most important forces alive in media today.
The notion that a media company should populate its blogs with with staff writers comes directly from the Academy of Stupid Old Ideas.
The real opportunity doesn’t involve spewing more of the same on the street, it involves inviting the outside voices to come inside.
A smart media company should become a hub for allowing outside blogs to get attention and an audience. ”
Isn’t this what most of us find boring/aggravating about the MSM, aside from the “L” bias? That their content tends to be fluff?
The same could be applied to celebrities who think the masses are just dying to get their marching orders for the day — I’m thinking of huff-n-puff or Babs Streisand,
To his credit, Bob C. does point out some that seem to get it and time will tell if it sinks or swims.
What set Bob off was some media suit talking about getting “cred” by setting up a corporate blog with his imprint behind it.
So rather than Bob being the arrogant one; he’s just ranting about the arrogance of MSM elites rushing in and not realizing that they ain’t got no clothes.
To wit, anyone looking forward to coffee in the morning daily with Dan Blather’s blog or Aaron Brown’s musing? I thot not.
Comment by Andy — 07.29.05 @ 9:52 pm