Instapundit has a link to ScrappleFace, which looks like it’s worth a regular visit, and a rootle around in its archives. The target, all the time, is the portentously urgent and cliché-riden prose of the mainstream US media.
I couldn’t find any mention at ScrappleFace of Samizdata, but this could be because Scott Ott of ScrappleFace, judging by an early posting about Darwinism, is opposed to such things as Darwinism, as, on the whole, aren’t we. And then again, maybe I didn’t find any mention of Samizdata because I just didn’t find it.
I’m also enjoying the Orrin Judd versus Jonah Goldberg stuff, also flagged up by Instapundit.
Judd’s case is that although blogs won’t replace the mainstream media, and although bloggers won’t make any money, they do still profoundly influence the mainstream. One of the “under the radar” notions that Orin Judd noted as starting in the blogs and only later getting to the regular media is popular hostility to Saudi Arabia. Changing my subject somewhat, to content, it occurs to me that what President Bush may have in mind is that if all goes well in Gulf War 2, the USA will then have itself a new and staunch ally (Iraq) in the Middle East. And from this new Iraq, it can then turn around and start to discuss matters in Saudi Arabia, from a somewhat new perspective. Instead of depending on Saudi Arabia to influence Iraq, Bush will have Iraq to influence Saudi Arabia with. Which just might explain the difference in attitude of the Saudis towards Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2.
I doubt that this kind of speculation has been much featured on the regular media, if only because the US government wouldn’t want it on the regular media – not just yet. But I bet I’m not the first bloggist to have said such a thing, and I further bet that the comments on this will quickly prove me right. (Prove me right someone – quickly please.)
ScrappleFace has recently evolved to include a link to Samizdata. There was no plan to do so. It happened quite by accident. Let’s hope this is an adaptation which facilitates symbiosis.
The thing about the Saudis is totally correct – and I suspect it’s also what explains their recent U turn (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2260437.stm) on support for GW2 as hyped by todays papers. They want to snuggle as close to the USA as their population will let them, for fear of being next on the list.
With the new US-Russia deal on oil and the new facilties being built at Murmansk to ship Russian oil to the US, look for very big changes in the policies five to ten years out when those resources start replacing Saudi oil.
There seems to be an inevitability in world affairs of the 21st century that will drive the US and Russia together as global partners.
I don’t think it’s so much that bloggers are deeper thinkers than journalists as that most people are deeper thinkers than journalists. We notice bloggers because they have a platform. I don’t know how the major media manages to stay so consistantly shallow in it’s outlook. They must hand out blinders along with journalism degrees.
Hmmm… a discussion with the Saudis. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
I wonder if “someone”, the White House for example, has set up a spider to search blogs and categorize content? There’s the Zogby poll, the Gallup poll and then the… BLOG Spider.
I watch big brother