Dr. Frank's What's-it

If you turn it on, we'll alternate all night long

Matt Welch has a great article on the role of blogging as an alternative alternative in the Columbia Journalism Review.

It goes without saying, really, that the reason I noticed it is because it contains a link to this blog, as part of a "short list of favorite news commentators in the world"-- thanks Matt! I'm sure the visitors from the link, in view of the public's insatiable demand for punk-rock singer/songwriter news commentators, might in the end be a bit bewildered at the navel-gazing, neurotic studio journal cum travelogue into which this blog has morphed recently. You get to write about whatever you feel like when no one's paying you. That's the glory and the tragedy.

Anyway, Matt's article ably covers and provides sensible answers to the "is blogging journalism?" question that always hovers over the issue. (Literally speaking, as Doc Searls once remarked, bloggers are indeed journalists. I may not be much, but I'm literally more of a journalist than Maureen Dowd, who is more of a semaine-ist, if I'm not mistaken. I know, I know, the essence of Real Journalism isn't how frequently you do it; it's more a matter of figuring out a way to get the most money out of doing the least amount of it. That's where bloggers fall short, have it rather backwards in fact, and it's a sensible goal, surely. At least, I hope that's what they teach you how to do at J-School. Isn't it? Not that I'd know, of course. See what I mean about being able to write whatever you feel like?)

My favorite part of Matt's piece, though, is the behind-the-scenes look at the recent conference of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, an organization more or less dedicated, by the looks of things, to the vigorous propagation of the "dull pieties of official progressivism," to use Welch's memorably adapted phrase. ( How'd they let Welch in, anyway? Must have been some mistake...) Welch documents, incidentally, a semi-official Pretense of Hostility to Religion litmus test among those in the International Order of Self-perceived Journalistic With-It-ness. Far out, man. As a whole, it provides a more or less classic illustration of how an Old Guard (any Old Guard) will let go of its long out-of-date pretensions as the Avant Garde only when you pry them out of their cold, dead, wizened, alternative hands. Matt's prying as hard as he can ("...never in my life have I seen a more conformist gathering of journalists...") But so far, Alternative is still here to stay, as someone once said. Sad bastards.