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PDD on Final Edition

The subject of blogs came up last week on KUWS' Final Edition. I held off on posting about it until they posted the full audio on their website.

The discussion about PDD and other blogs happens about halfway through.

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Joel Anderson (Moderator): "Do you guys in the working ... working journalists ... do you have to monitor the blogs? I mean, is that something you have to do? No? Just like you monitor the other stations or monitor radio?"

Greg Grell (WDSE - Almanac North): "Myself, I don't monitor them, but if somebody gives me a heads-up then I'll take a look. But ... you know, there's so much. There's a few different ones like Perfect Duluth Day ... that's a particularly liberal one. There's others that go the other way, and really so much of that on there is ... one person's opinion, and many times one person's uninformed opinion, that it's ... it's just not something I think you should spend a lot of time with. Sometimes, though, you know somebody will write something that is absolutely false about your organization and I think in that case, you know, you may want to ... at least keep tabs on it, whether or not you respond to it in any kind of official way ... at least try to set the record straight behind the scenes or whatever."

Ron Brochu (Daily Telegram): "There was a time when I watched one in Duluth, the uh ... what do they call it, the Citizen's Blog or whatever ... I don't know ... you know, really, if I wanted to listen to a bunch of totally uniformed whackos, you know, whose mouth is much bigger than their brain, I'd just go to a bar."

Mike Simonson (KUWS): "Well, you know what? I hadn't really been reading blogs until I ...."

Greg Grell (interjects): "Would you like to refer to a specific whacko?"

Joel Anderson: "Or a specific bar?"

Greg Grell: "Just so we can get something else started here?"

Ron Brochu: "About 95% of them, maybe."

Mike Simonson: "But you know, there is some good conversation on blogs, and it's conversation and people want to find stuff out, and then there's the people who are absolutely sure of everything. That they are absolutely right, and they'll name-call, you know, other people if they disagree. And to me, OK, that's when I'm done reading that blog, because now I'm wasting my time and I'm getting offended, and I'm not learning anything new."

Greg Grell: "I like it if somebody reasons and argues, but argues with an open mind ... and you're absolutely right, Mike ... there are some people that ... the name calling part is the part that really disturbs me. And it seems like in our society today, and I don't know if it's, you know, if it's what's been happening culturally or what it is, but it does seem like there are very few people that can argue a point without getting in, you know, to the mudslinging, to the name-calling. You know, they don't have an answer apparently, so instead they just belittle the person that they're debating with."

Mike Simonson: "You know, and I hope that that is going away. You know, I may be stupid and naive to say that, especially going into the 2008 election, you know that's right around the bend. We remember how awful the 2004 election was."

Comments

interesting transcript.... so they bemoan the name calling whist engaging in it... as well it'd be cool to have representatives from the blogs to talk about them if they are going to discuss the topic, sounds like most of them are perhaps a tad uniformed or dismissive... oh well


It's Mike Simonson's gig, Joel A is just an invited volunteer moderator - why not contact Mike and have the proprietors of various local blogs weigh in on whether they monitor the bricks and mortar press...!


The description of PDD as "particularly liberal" baffles me. PDD is mostly pop-cultural and creative, with an underlying foundation of centrist progressive attitudes.

Mainstream journalists spend a lot of time dismissing blogs--and rightly so, in many cases. Many blogs merely react to information the mainstream media provides.

It does not have to be this way.

Given the ease and inexpensiveness of blogging, anybody with interest and a notebook can now break a news story.

I think the complaints about the excessive mudslinging in our culture today are unjustified. The stuff that goes on today is tame compared to what went on a hundred years ago.


I do find it interesting that (albeit by different people) that comments rejecting the idea of name calling sit right next to other comments calling bloggers whackos.


Greg Grell admitted that he didn't read blogs, and then said that PDD is very liberal? I hope Greg takes a look. I think PDD is usually apolitical. As the Cheerleader says above, it's mostly about pop culture and cheerful goofiness (the Paul Lundgren effect). When a political topic emerges, you see some interesting back-and-forth dialogue.


Isn't cheerful goofiness a liberal trait?


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