November 16, 2009

it's like they're always amazed...

I really should have one of those New York Times alert thingies for mentions of “bloggers” or “blog” or “blogging,” because whenever the gray lady deigns to report on said things (other than, you know, in their blogs) it’s always so “human interest.” Two from the last couple of days…

Bloggers eat taxpayer-purchased cookes! In From Treasury, an Invitation to Financial Bloggers

Some of the bloggers were acutely aware of the effects of being welcomed inside “the brain trust,” as Steve Randy Waldman put it on the blog Interfluidity. “The mere invitation made me more favorably disposed to policy makers,” he wrote in his summary of the event, even though he abstained from eating any of the cookies at the meeting, “on principle.”

And in Writing a Sports Column Far From Print, and the Game bloggers become influential sports journalists! And write best selling books! All while rarely attending actual games! But not without the scorn of the Times…

“I will never write a traditional sports column,” [Bill Simmons] said. “But there are opportunities to spend time with people that I couldn’t before. Maybe I could do a running diary from spending four days with a player on the road.”

Think of the possibilities: You follow a team. Ride with the players from game to game. Interview the star about why he missed the big shot at the end of the game. And then write it all up.

Groan.