Sunday, November 20, 2005: FYI, the commenting and trackbacking features on this post have been disabled since yesterday. If you sent a trackback today and it didn’t appear, that is the reason. Rumors of trackback deleting on LBC are greatly exaggerated. Get a life, bloggers.
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I’ll update this post with news and views (and photos) on Open Source Media later today. In the meantime, check out funnyman Scrappleface (blogging on WordPress now).
Live-blogging the launch!
Update (10:07 a.m.): I’m sitting in the Rainbow Room at 30 Rock with…bloggers! Dave Johnston, Fausta, and Jonathan Schlein of Philomathean. I met Pamela of Atlas Shrugs, Lucianne Goldberg and Charles Johnson. I saw Kevin Aylward and Mike Krempasky of RedState again (met them at CPAC).
First panel: “Are Blogs The New Black,” led by a non-blogger and bloggers I’ve never heard of. 
There’s more to life than political blogging, I guess! The non-blogger thinks blogs are “absurd” and says she doesn’t know why she’s here. OK. Controversy makes things interesting. I’m having a little trouble following this discussion, to be honest. Someone who runs this blog and this one are talking about blogging. “The Manolo” is an anonymous blogger who blogs about shoes, and he’s on the telephone.
Thanks for the trackback, Pieter.
This panel is soooo boring. Not into the “fashion and beauty” stuff, or celebrity news. I think most attendees are political bloggers. I see a lot of blank stares and glazed-over eyes. Ed Driscoll and New Dave are live-blogging. The non-blogger on the panel said that because of the current conservatism and “fundamentalism” in the country, fashion has become conservative. And the moderator said that after 911 he noticed that fashion became more conservative. Who are these people? I don’t know.
11:11 a.m.: The first panel is over. Thank goodness! The next panel is “Gonzo To Blogs: Who Is A Journalist in 2005?” This is my kind of thing. Panelists are John Podhoretz, David Corn, Richard Fernandez, Larry Kudlow, and Claudia Rosett.
Corn makes a distinction between what traditional journalists do — gather information — and what bloggers do — react to information. That’s what we need to change! Fernandez talks about bloggers’ audience, who add value to the blog.
LIVE-STREAM AUDIO of the panel. Kudlow’s in the house, and he’s a REAL blogger. The discussion is getting interesting. Lots of back and forth about the role of MSM and the role of the blogosphere.
Really Important Statement: I noticed that race- and class-related rant-posts get the most comments. LBC commenters, not necessarily LBC readers, aren’t much interested in posts like this one. Unless I’m ranting and raving against liberals or illegal aliens, you guys aren’t interested, eh? After two years of blogging, this is the first time I’ve blogged about this, but I’ve noticed it for a while.
I don’t blame you. I’m kind of bored, too. But…I’m intrigued by the idea of blogs becoming primary sources. That’s definitely not boring. Jeff Jarvis is confused.
12:05 p.m.: Almost time for lunch!
1:36 p.m.: OK. I’ve eaten. I’m in a better mood now. In response to my “Where are the commenters?” rant, a commenter writes:
I find this interesting, LaShawn….but informational, and not thought provoking and thereby invoking a need to comment (wait, isn’t that what I’m doing now?) …but then again, as 99.9% of the time I agree with you…
Thanks for indulging me. 
I was hungry and some of the panelists said unkind things about bloggers. The pity party has been disbanded. Now, before my battery runs out, I’ll give you a summary of Judy Miller’s speech. As you may know, she’s a journalist and former New York Times reporter who spent time in jail to protect sources re: the Valerie Plame “scandal.”
Note to self: Stephen Green is sitting at the next table. Must get photo with him.
Miller talked about the importance of journalists protecting their sources. She briefly discussed being in jail in Alexandria, Virginia, and reading inaccurate articles and blog posts about the “scandal” with no ability to defend herself or set the record straight. Miller can’t say much today, either, because she might be called as a witness in the Scooter Libby case. (Related news at JustOneMinute).
4:19 p.m.: Stephen Green (pictured) is a nice guy. Have you ever met him? Very cool, and I’m not saying that just because he asked me to guest-blog while he was on vacation.
Overall, it was a good day, not counting sitting through the first panel. My assessment of Open Source Media (OSM) is positive. Bloggers are bad-mouthing OSM all over the place, and that’s good. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, I’ve discovered, and a little blog envy goes a long way.
I don’t know about anyone else in OSM, but I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do and wish I’d started 10 years earlier. Being a part of the pajama brigade, whether we’re getting good press or bad, is exactly what I need to propel myself (and LBC) to a new level. I like blogging, but I want to write books, articles, get quoted by the national media, and blog. Modest ambitions?
I just realized how boring and spotty my live-blogging was, so I don’t blame anyone for not commenting. 
Yesterday I whined about wishing I had more time (and money) to hang out in NYC for a few days. This afternoon, Fausta, who lives in New Jersey, took me to The Museum of Modern Art. I did something besides hang out at a hotel with bloggers. Hanging with bloggers at art museums is different. Anyway, it was great meeting Ed Driscoll, Asher Abrams, Evan Coyne Maloney, Cathy Seipp, Pieter Dorsman, Pamela, Roger Simon, “Neo-Neocon,”, Kevin Aylward, and others I’m forgetting at the moment. I met Glenn Reynolds (Thanks for the link!) in Nashville.
Tonight we socialize, take more pictures, hand out more cards, and talk about — what else — blogging!
(Thanks for the shout out, Scott.)
10:01 p.m.: The “Happy Hour” gathering was the best part of the event.
I met so many great bloggers and saw others I’d met before at other blogger events. I admit that it’s nice when people come up to me, strangers, and say they read my blog every day or I see them making their way across the room to meet me. I feel the same way about many of them.
Pictured from left to right are Asher Abrams, a blogger whose name I can’t remember (bad!), me with the demon eyes, Karol Sheinin (who I met at CPAC) of Alarming News, and Cathy Seipp, a lady I really wanted to meet.
Tim Blair sat across from me at lunch, and I didn’t know it. For some reason we didn’t introduce ourselves, but we talked at happy hour. Tim is an Australian, journalist, a former editor at TIME, blogger, and very unassuming. Bloggers read each others’ sites and form their own images of what people are like. When we meet them, we’re sometimes way off.
I got to chat with Eric Scheie again. He attended my faith-based blogging session at BlogNashville. I met so many bloggers and several non-bloggers. I can’t remember them all! If I forgot to mention you, send me an e-mail.
In a day or two, I’ll upload the rest of my photos to the Flickr account I set up months ago but haven’t used yet. If I haven’t said this in awhile, forgive me: Thanks for reading LBC! I love to blog, but it’s great knowing so many people read the posts. 
Read the latest OSM posts at The Truth Laid Bear and Memeorandum.
