Will Campbell

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:43:47 -0800

Kornholer's place in the Monday Night Football booth is but one of the reasons I gave up watching what until its move to ESPN had been a show I'd watched without fail for more years than I care to count or remember.

Ross A. Lincoln

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:37:51 -0800

This reminds me of the sad but simultaneously hilarious saga of Lee Siegel, former blogger for the New Republic who was the brunt of frequent, and deservedly vehement criticism from the blogosphere and in his comments. He was discovered to frequently employ sock puppetry to attack people who disagreed with him. In one case, his sock puppet enhanced attacks on blogger Ezra Klein approached the level of ad hominem slander. His sock puppets also, hilariously and pathetically, praised him to the stars. It was the literal apex of vanity and immaturity in a middle aged, six figure package. So, when he was caught, publicly humiliated for his intellectual dishonesty and childlike behavior, and his bloging relationship with the New Republic was ended, he had two options: 1) Admit that he's been a World Class Tool, (Order of Merlin,) and endeavor to change 2) be a whiny little baby He chose option 2 and now has a hilarious (and poorly selling book) called "Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob," all about how those meany blogger interneters are just so poopy and rude to establishment figures. Also, he coined the term blogofasiscm. The point is, people in his position, and I suspect Tony Kornheiser's (though I never pay attention to sports-related anything,) have never, until quite recently, had to deal with instant, real time reactions to their screed. Where once they could issue ill thought out and poorly fact checked proclamations from on high, safe in the knowledge that their people will probably throw out all the angry letters so they never have to sully their beautiful minds thinking about them, now they have to deal with people practically face to face. It hurts their egos to discover that they aren't worshiped as the godlike figures of wisdom they imagine themselves to be, and their resentment to the ungrateful masses shows in ricidulous outbursts like this. Too bad. As many LAist bloggers know, if you say something in public, people who disagree with you are going to let you know, often very sternly. And good for them too. The internet has started to balance the relationship between the writer and the reader (and it is a relationship, no matter what literary recluses want to think,) back so that the reader doesn't just have to be a passive recipient. I think it's awesome. People who say things in public ought to have the gonads to take what comes from having said it. Besides, if you can't handle people saying vewy meen things abowt you, if you can't handle people not agreeing with everything you say, maybe you ought to quit trying to put yourself into the public sphere. Which only brings me back to the main point: Tony Kornheiser, you're a chode.

solracg

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:05:41 -0800

Tony is great, and most of his rants are done for comedy. I would guess he said this with a smile at the very least. As a fan of both the traditional media and blogs (including this one). I must say, many of you bloggers can be uber sensitive, lighten up. Even if the old school guys don't get you or like you keep on, keeping on. I think we all know where the future of information distribution is going.

LAist: Nobody Puts Bloggers in a Korner

Will Campbell

Ross A. Lincoln

solracg