A Spork in the Drawer

MIA

Hilzoy hangs up her blogging hat.

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Ossification

This is something I've been thinking about lately, particularly this item:

3. Norms and practices. Bloggers have undermined the blogosphere. Bloggers do not link to each other as much as they used to. It's a lot of work to look for good posts elsewhere, and most bloggers have become burnt out. Drezner and Farrell had a theory that even small potato bloggers would have their day in the sun, if they wrote something so great that it garnered the attention of the big guys. But the big guys are too burnt out to find the hidden gems. So, good stuff is being written all the time, and it isn't bubbling to the top.

I appreciate all the points and I can't say any of this surprises me but the blogosphere has changed and become a less vibrant and less interesting place.

[Via Kevin Drum.]

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Adding, I also think that opposition to Republicans in general and the BushCheney regime in particular was an energizing force but now with Democrats controlling Congress and the White House it's becoming obvious that said Democrats are little better than those they replaced. This has a dispiriting effect.

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Solidarity Forever

Rachel comes to the defense of the dirty bloggers:

For the record: I own a house and don't own pajamas.

And Cheetohs™ make me ill.

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More AP Fun

By way of Nielsen Hayden we find that the AP's "Terms of Use Content Agreement" contains this gem:

You shall not use the Content in any manner or context that will be in any way derogatory to the author, the publication from which the Content came, or any person connected with the creation of the Content or depicted in the Content. You agree not to use the Content in any manner or context that will be in any way derogatory to or damaging to the reputation of Publisher, its licensors, or any person connected with the creation of the Content or referenced in the Content.

If, say, AP reporter Nedra Pickler writes something that smacks of Republican propaganda - and our old friend Nedra is notorious for that - you can't use even a sentence to illustrate the point.

Granted, this only applies to those who have contracted with the AP. But even this becomes murky as it appears that anyone who quotes from an AP article has pretty much contracted with them and owes them at least $12.50.

Somebody should let the them know that Congress defines copyright and the AP does not have the power to change those laws.

Finally, kos dares the AP to sue him:

Lots of blogs are calling for boycotts of AP content. Not me. I'm going to keep using it. I will copy and paste as many words as I feel necessary to make my points and that I feel are within bounds of copyright law (and remember, I've got a JD and specialized in media law, so I know the rules pretty well). And I will keep doing so if I get an AP takedown notice (which I will make a big public show of ignoring). And then, either the AP -- an organization famous for taking its members work without credit -- will either back down and shut the hell up, or we'll have a judge resolve the easiest question of law in the history of copyright jurisprudence.

That's a court battle I'd pay to see.

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Limited Backpedaling

(Note: I'm deliberately breaking the boycott of the AP for reasons that should be obvious.)

A representative from the Associated Press is going to meet with the head of the Media Bloggers Association, Robert Cox, to try and hash out guidelines for quoting AP stories and to decide under what conditions they will sue bloggers.

So it doesn't appear to be much of a backpedal. But we'll see.

Of course, what the vast majority of bloggers have been doing all along falls under Fair Use so no new guidelines are needed but that doesn't seem to concern the AP at all.

(Note to the Associated Press: I have not quoted a single word from your story so no lawsuit is necessary.)

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More Fairness

In response to Roy Edroso's The Official Village Voice Election-Season Guide to the Right-Wing Blogosphere: A confederacy of dunces the always brilliant Thers gives us The Official FDL Election Season Guide to the Left-Wing Traitorsphere.

(My personal favorite: The entry for Amanda Marcotte.)

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Blogs Are Not The Enemy

Devilstower has a terrific post up at the Great Orange Satan:

Punditry has always aimed as much artillery at the people who deliver the news as it does at those who make it. There's a very good reason for this. Before you can convince someone of a lie, you need to make it more difficult for them to check your information. If you establish from the start that NPR is communist, MSNBC and CNN are slanted, and every newspaper this side of Journal's editorial page should be printed on pink paper, then any exaggeration you deliver becomes the de facto standard. Impugning the validity of other news sources is the first job of a successful pundit. They don't seek to be your sources of information by passing along reliable news. They do so by constantly assailing the legitimacy of other sources until you're left shaking your head at the absolute ignorance of everyone but Rush/Bill/Sean/Ann.

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In response to the assault from less factual sources, media both accelerated the already existing trend toward mingling news and entertainment and -- in the most twisted move imaginable -- sought to imitate the mudslingers. They joined the war not by upholding their standards, but by dismissing them. And again, they did so for the reason that Keen indicates as the break between amateur and professional: the perception that there was more money to be made on the less truthful side of the aisle.

Definitely worth a read.

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Housekeeping

New additions to the blogroll: Roy Edroso takes the right down a peg or twelve at alicublog, the wonderful Susie Madrak whacks them at Suburban Guerrilla, TRex snarks a trail at IamTRex, the Rude Pundit is, well, rude, local boy Bram goes local at the local Pittsburgh Comet, and a gathering of fine femmes can be found at the Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society.

Those, and many more, can be found to the left (!).

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Karl Rove Has A Problem...

...with some blogs but mostly he doesn't like potty-mouths:

Mr. Rove cited the results of a study that found that writers and commenters on liberal blogs such as DailyKos.com cursed far more than writers and commenters on conservative Web sites such as FreeRepublic.com.

"My point is not that liberals swear publicly more often than conservatives. That may be true, but that's not my point," Mr. Rove said. "It is that the netroots often argue from anger rather than reason, and too often, their object is personal release, not political persuasion."

This coming from a walking expletive.

Fuck you, Karl.

(Whoops! I just proved Karl right! Shame on me!)

[Via Steve Benen.]

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Idiots In Action

Stoller:

I just flipped on MSNBC, and Chris Matthews is saying that he doesn't mind accused of being wrong or accused of being unfair, but he bristles at being accused of lacking independent.

"I've gotten it from the left-wing blogs and the right-wing blogs every day of my life for the last twenty years."

Blogs were created in 2001. Ah, the Village.

This is one of the people who decides what's acceptable discourse.

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