LILEKS ON BLOGGING:

Shortly thereafter Internet access went out for the entire building.

I felt cut off from the world. It was as if my window had been bricked up. I needed to know what was going on out there.

Keep in mind that I had this feeling in a newspaper, where I had access to every wire service on the planet.

That’s actually rather telling. I’ve come to depend on the krill-filtering mechanisms of blogs and news sites, because they’re far more interesting than the wire feeds. I read a wire story, and that’s that. A wire story consists of one voice pitched low and calm and full of institutional gravitas, blissfully unaware of its own biases or the gaping lacunae in its knowledge. Whereas blogs have a different format:

Clever teaser headline that has little to do with the actual story, but sets the tone for this blog post.

Breezy ad hominem slur containing the link to the entire story.

Excerpt of said story, demonstrating its idiocy (or brilliance)

Blogauthor’s remarks, varying from dismissive sniffs to a Tolstoi-length rebuttal.

Seven comments from people piling on, disagreeing, adding a link, acting stupid, preaching to the choir, accusing choir of being Nazis, etc.

I’d say it’s a throwback to the old newspapers, the days when partisan slants covered everything from the play story to the radio listings, but this is different. The link changes everything. When someone derides or exalts a piece, the link lets you examine the thing itself without interference. TV can’t do that. Radio can’t do that. Newspapers and magazines don’t have the space. My time on the internet resembles eight hours at a coffeeshop stocked with every periodical in the world – if someone says “I read something stupid” or “there was this wonderful piece in the Atlantic” then conversation stops while you read the piece and make up your own mind.

I’m serious. I was sitting at a terminal at a major American daily, and I thought: I feel so uninformed!

I know what he means. And I think the point about how the link changes everything is key. I get the occasional complaint from old-line journalists about my “bias” in the way I characterize something I link to. But that’s the difference: unlike old media, I link to it. Readers don’t have to take my word. They can make up their own minds. My comments are like the chatter of the guy at the newsstand as he hands you the paper: “Those bums are gonna blow the pennant again, looks like.”

Okay, actually that mostly happens in old movies. But, like his comments, mine are at no extra charge (“extra” charge?). They may send you to a different newsstand where you like the comments better, or they may bring you back. Your call. The story’s the same regardless. And you can make up your own mind who’s going to win the pennant.