Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The Doonesbury Blog Attack


Doonesbury, GB Trudeau

"I'm here chatting with blogger SlamZ88 at the tail end of the media's fascination with blogging." Gary Trudeau, Doonesbury

The blogosphere has now been officially attacked by a veritable icon of free speech in American media -- Gary Trudeau. And Bloggers everywhere are getting their panties in a twist.

In the July 3 strip, Trudeau's Doonesbury asks a dorky, pimply faced geek Blogger, "Isn't blogging basically for angry, semi-employed losers who are too untalented or too lazy to get real jobs in journalism?" Hooboy, piercing irony isn't so funny when it's directed at you.

So every blogger who even remotely fits an obscure part of that description is suddenly feeling like a smacked ass -- when instead they should be enjoying the big fat moon Trudeau is shooting, as he does so well, at the worst of us.

Yo, guys, lighten up! It's Doonesbury, for cryin out loud. Which means Blogging's made it. We've arrived. We're legit. In fact, getting a mention in the Mother of all comic strips signifies we're a genuine phenomenon, a force to be reckoned with, and therefore examined. And--if warranted--skewered.

Doonesbury set the gold standard for taking a hard, irreverent, penetrating look at our culture, our leaders, our lives. Trudeau's stinging satire has for years represented liberal boomer ideologies, frustrations and experiences. It's altogether fitting he take a shot at the Blogging phenomena, especially at Bloggers who take themselves and their blogs too seriously.

"If the market really valued what you have to say, wouldn't someone pay you for it?" Doonesbury asks. Yes, some can answer, and in ever growing numbers. Businesses and websites are paying for intelligent, interesting, authentic, unusual, funny, newsworthy and community-generating blogs.


Trudeau's referring to the crackpots, the self-indulgent whiners, the blowhards and geekazoids of the world who overpopulate the blogosphere in unfettered and unregulated profusion. If you took offense at Doonesbury's remarks, I need to tell you, as kindly as possible, that you're one of them.

The world has seen that blogs can be a viable collective chorus when rallying around an important cause like truth in media or stopping radical right wingnuts from co-opting the Constitution for their own agendas.


But there are so many Bloggers whose solo rants and ramblings are just plain idiotic and boring. They're filled with comments from "fellow crackpots who have time to respond to your posts." Some badly need editing, some could stand a few reality checks--and if it were possible--many should just be jettisoned.

That's the beauty of the blogosphere -- everybody gets a voice. And a chance to speak out on serious issues and causes and inequities and truly repugnant situations (like the war in Iraq) without censorship to a virtually unlimited audience. Bloggers with the Right Stuff have the very real potential to make a difference -- and to make a name for themselves.

Those of us who are/were journalists or marketing mavens know the truth of the old adage: It doesn't matter what they say about you, as long as they spell your name right. As far as I'm concerned, Trudeau spelled B-L-O-G just fine.



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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My name Jacqueline Simone Guillemette Montauban burgess
I am 72 years old and ready to face you.
I was a child during WWII, an orphan, and I remember wery well the terror and the bombing in the night.
The english bombing did not cause any casualty, the american bombing cause many civilian casualty. God I love them but at noon they were bombing the wrong place, they wanted to bomb the train station.
The smeel of the bomb would scare me so much that I would wet my pantie. Now I want you to know that the american didn't want to go to war in Europe. YOu can imagine what I am thinking about the war in Iraq. The spoiled people with so much money material and food can not imagine what it means to the others to be free. If it was not for these wonderful young man who died helping us we would be speaking German today and America would be under the german regime. Shame on all the democratS for critizing my dear president Bush. Take a woman like Clinton,what it she doing? Get her out she is dangerous. I call the democrats ATTACK DOGS, YES YOU ARE ALSO A ATTACK DOG PERSON DOONESBURY OR G.B. TRUDEAU.
hoW MUCH MONEY ARE YOU GETTING FOR WHAT YOU WRITTING. OF ALL THINGS IN THE COMIC SECTION.
DO YOU REMEMBER 9/11, DO YOU REMENBER PEAL HARBOR WWII.
I love my America, I came here with a soldier.
I wish I could go to Washington D.C and face few of those very dangerous democrats and ask them in from of the world to anwser my questions. Jacqueline
Dare for you to print my email.

6:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want you to read it.

6:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I speak German and they lost the war.

--me, Kurt Doonesbury

1:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is extremely interesting for me to read this post. Thanks for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read more on that blog soon.

8:47 PM  

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