Sometimes I feel a bit isolated from the mainstream because I no longer pay much attention to TV, quit subscribing to magazines several years ago and newspapers before that, and only listen to the radio when I'm driving. (Listening to Neal Boortz and Michael Savage keeps me up to speed on the chattering classes, Clark Howard is a ray of consumer-advice sunshine when I catch him, and the rest of the radio diet is filled in from an NPR menu.) So the rest of the time I spend reading and blogging, which gives me the feeling that I am normally about twenty-four to thirty-six hours ahead of the news cycle, and way better informed by my reading than I would be if I stuck with the shallow stuff.
A post at Firedoglake illustrates how bloggers think and write. I guess the reason I am attracted to the medium is not because of any particular social or political bent, but the fact that the credibility level seems better. No editing, no sucking up to advertisers, no climbing the corporate ladder stuff. Well there are link-whores, trolls and nut cases, but how far do you have to travel anywhere to avoid their like? Certainly not pop media!
This post by Jane Hamsher captures all the best the blogworld has to offer. And her peers, both friends and opponents, respond with overwhelming support. They had to close the comments thread at 765 items because the response was so great. Go take a look.
(I'm still waiting for Blogger to figure out that the word blogger is not a misspelling as their spell-checker would have it. Is this medium still in its infancy or what?)
Followup Sunday, Jan 22:
She's back from the hospital. Tons of support and well-wishers...
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