Thursday, January 26, 2006

Caveat Blogger

Read a very interesting piece at National Review Online about yesterday's Washington Post Live Online chat with Jim Brady, Jay Rosen, Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis and Jane Hamsher about interactivity and the media. The artcile, is short, I suggest you give it a quick read.

Back? Okay, so basically, popular left-leaning blogs can get away with having an active comment section because they don't have to worry about the media attributing comments from Cosmo the Wonder Conspiracist to their blog or them personally. I think Glenn Reynolds brings up a good point about him not allowing comments and the fact that comments from Jack the NeoFacist may very well get attributed to him. The fact that a Reuters article bore out his point is makes his comment all the more poignant.

However, Dean Esmay has a very interesting post about commenting that anyone who worries about such things as the media mentioning their blog should take a look at. I think it's a very healthy point of view. Personally, I love commenting. I am a serial commentor at several blogs, as most of you know. And I love the debates that they can generate. But I well understand the issues that can arise if you run a high-traffic site like Dean's World or Instapundit.

I guess, what I'm trying to say here is that I respect both of these men's point of view and that, you know, different strokes.

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