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"Postmodernism is a change-or-be-changed world. The word is out: Reinvent
yourself for the 21st century or die! Some would rather die than change."
Leonard Sweet, cultural historian.

05/23/2005 Entry: "The wishful thinking of George Simpson"

MediaPost commentator George Simpson writes so much satire that it's hard to know when to take him seriously. I think he's being serious this morning in The Bursting Blog Bubble, but I wish it was satire. That's because I've written often here about my fondness for his writing. This time, I'm afraid, he's out of touch with reality.

George takes some recent data from Pew and eMarketer to come to the conclusion that blog reading has crested. He needs to speak with Dave Silfry at Technorati.

Reading between the lines, it's pretty easy to see where Simpson is coming from: he's a mainstream journalist begging and praying for the moment that the disruptive innovations around him will go away. Denying the personal media revolution is extraordinarily foolish these days, but it's what we've come to expect from the outside-looking-in viewpoint.

It could just be that folks are too filled up with news and opinions they get from elsewhere--that blogs are just one too many dishes on the info-smorgasbord. Isn't that why we read newspapers and watch TV news, so that somebody with some professional judgment can search through all the chaff and find the grains of wheat?
No, George, this is exactly what people are trying to get away from, because they don't trust that "professional judgment" anymore.

Simpson also takes a shot at my friend, Steve Rubel, in this piece. That's crap, George. Steve responded this morning that it's too bad MediaPost doesn't include comments and trackback with Simpson's pieces, so that we could engage him in a conversation. But that's exactly what the lecture model of news can't handle, and that's really what's behind Simpson's commentary this morning. Besides, nobody in the blogging world is seriously suggesting that blogging will supplant the mainstream press. But the "all or nothing" meme is pressed by those whose fatted calf is under attack, because it helps sell their perspective.

He's still a good writer. Misguided, perhaps, but a good writer.

Sigh.

Replies: 1 Comment

I'm glad you like my writing (well, some of it). If you think I am misguided today, look back a few dozen columns and read where I smack main stream journalism on the nose with a newspaper for its historical arrogance. Geez, is nothing sacred anymore :0)

Posted by George Simpson @ 05/23/2005 04:02 PM CST


"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create."
Leonard Sweet