Blogoland

Here's something I dropped into Jeff Jarvis's comments section about the recent "scalp hunter" piece in the NYT, and thought it might be interesting to post it here:

IN ALL seriousness, though, I read this story and had two thoughts: clearly the NYT had been beat, and was doing some furious catch-up. And two: there is something of a point here. Bloggers (both left and right) seem to go into a super-caffeinated, salivating hyperdrive when it comes to collecting heads. Look at Kos or Reynolds or any other site when it sinks its fangs into such a story: Trent Lott! Dan Rather! Jeff Gannon! Eason Jordan!

Are some of these stories important ones that traditional media missed? Absolutely. But on my end, as both a reporter and nouveau blogger, much of this stuff strikes me as overkill. And I get turned off by it.

When I go through some weblog and see post after post after post of blog-screaming about this VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE I MUST PAY ATTENTION TO NOW I am inclined to ignore it -- much like I ignore the ranting nut standing on the corner or the true believer screaming on the phone trying to interest me in a story.

Maybe it's media bias.

But maybe it's a bias against lunacy.