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The mainstream doesn't realize that many blogs are the written equivalent of dinner conversation rather than carefully crafted op-ed pieces. That's why they work so well, because we can all drop the act and just speak our minds. Of course, that leads immediately to vast expanses of choice quotes that when presented within a mediated context look less like spur-of-the-moment thoughts and more like well-deliberated policy positions. But I don't worry about it much.
The day is coming when text blogs become realtime video blogs, when every moment from every public and private figure will be recorded somewhere and ready for worldwide distribution. Everytime a president has that "my mind is empty" look on their face, every time a vice president calls a Congressperson a motherfucker, everytime a pundit grabs as ass when they think they are off camera, everytime a closeted gay-bashing preacher drives over to their secret gay escort: those moments will come back to haunt them as they get broadcast in hi-def and 3D surround to the world.
To those of you who think Marcotte is an ultra-left-wingnut Christ-hating lesbian feminazi: First, you really ought to get out more -- what she writes on her blog is quite civil compared to what I used to hear around the dinner table even in semi-rural Republican North Carolina. (Go buy a copy of Bitch or Bust sometime.) Second, when we reach the day every public figure looks like an ass, are you going to keep rooting for the ones whose well-crafted writings contradict everything they privately say and do, or will you support the ones whose writings back up their actions even if they cussed a little over the years?
