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• Friday, February 3, 2006 10:10 AM

  Fewer blogs, more journalism

  The blogs were a good idea at first, but I agree with some of the other posters: they too often degenerate into silliness. Snark is the major problem here. War Room was nice for a while, a digest of election-related articles, but on some dry news days it sounds a little too precious. I won't even talk about Broadsheet or VideoDog. Thank God Peter Daou boils the political blogs down for me so I don't actually have to read the damn things.

  The no-portal comments also ring true--don't try to embrace the latest blogging trend just to be all things to all people. And, heaven forfed, don't become slashdot! I was surprised by how many slashdotters are coming out of the woodwork here--myself included. But I go to slashdot for the slashdot experience, and I come to Salon for the Salon experience. Goofy in-jokes, friends-fans-foes-freaks, karma whores, geek subculture--that's fine for slashdot, and I like to keep it there. In 1998 I discovered a web magazine that actually had interesting, informative and thought-provoking journalism, which was simply amazing. The in-group subculture was nicely limited to TableTalk and the Well, neither of which I felt interested in reading.

  When I go to a journalism site, I like to read edited articles produced by professionals with an ear for language, not the latest home-brew screed. There's plenty of places for screeds on the Web, and sometimes I seek them out. I'd rather not find them on Salon.

  —tedol Read tedol's other letters
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