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Health & Fitness

Of blogs and bloggers

So what are blogs for? Seems there are multi reasons from just mouthing off about some pet peeve, or a personal revelation that in all likelihood wouldn’t be of interest to 99.9% of the rest of humanity. Some use it as a Dear Diary or a journal for expressing perceptions, feelings or opinions, and others as a digital soapbox, a platform for ranting about anything under the sun. I fall into the last category. 

Is a blog different from an op-ed, a newspaper column or a letter to the editor? I think it has things in common with all of those. Newspaper editorials reflect the opinions, comments and sometimes suggestions of some publication’s editor, print or online, usually both. It’s probably the reason an editor became an editor. Editors consider themselves journalists because they’ve probably been reporters first and then moved to commentary. Editorials can be instructive, a framing of an argument for or against something; persuasive, personal or polemical. It usually has, should have, a point of view and the ability to couch it in order to influence others. Print editors tend to dismiss bloggers as a lower, unworthy class because often they’ve not been journalists (reporters) who’ve come up through the ranks. 

Newspaper columnists cover a broad range of news topics and lay out their perspectives and opinions for the reader’s consumption. They too usually have newspaper work in their background, but not always. Some just consider themselves smart, wise or amusing enough to do it and it’s borne out by readers or not. 

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Bloggers need no background, no training, no pertinent schooling, no nothing except a computer and the Net. Some of them do have the aforementioned training, but since there are no hard and fast rules for blogging it’s anybody’s game.  And that’s the nature of the Net. Blogging seems so American – everybody has an opinion. It’s like we’re afraid to say, “Uh, I don’t really have an opinion about that.” We don’t want to look stupid, opinion-less. So we say, “Yeah, I think that….”  

The Patch has bloggers and it encourages people to blog. Some of those bloggers have something to say, like it or not, some are just self-promotions, and some are off-the-wall nutters. Then there are folks who just like to comment, to tag stuff onto a blogger’s blog. They like to question, or challenge, or deride or agree with what the blogger said. Occasionally the comment is as long as the blog, but I suppose it’s a host – tick relationship. Could be a game of get-the-last-word in. It’s like they’re waiting behind bushes to jump out and comment you. I’ve been guilty of that myself. 

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Some of the bloggers on Patch are not polite. Some of them don’t write very well. Some of them don’t really have much of anything to say. But some do. 

Patch’s leading gadfly bloggers, Ralph Hutchinson, Sal Nero, Bob Edwards and of late former Patch Editor Julie Pendray always have something to say. They are not wasting the reader’s time. They are talking about things going on in our town that no one else is. Some of their allegations can be proven, some of their innuendos are simply that, speculations or opinions, but more importantly they always have something to say and there’s a good deal of truth in it 

Furthermore they’ve taken on some of the power structure in our town: lobbyist Darius Anderson, I-T Editor David Bolling, former I-T publisher/editor Bill Lynch, a few of the local pols who have overblown, disproportionate images of themselves such as Ken Brown, and actually everyone and anyone they deem worthy of criticism. Love them or hate them, believe them or not, they are outspoken, rude and impolitic, and are saying things no one else will. For that I applaud them and encourage them to keep at it. 

In my next blog I’ll talk about some of those targets mentioned. Hope you’ll stay tuned.

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