(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom and My Left Wing)
In recent days, a couple of ‘major’ media players, if you will, decided to take their best shots at Daily Kos. Conservative hack David Brooks called Markos a kingpin. Fox News even got in on the game, deciding that reporting on a flame war of epically small proportion was more newsworthy than their regularly scheduled fair and balanced programming.
However, the willingness of Markos and other Kossacks to enable this kind of behavior is disappointing, to say the least. On the recommended list, you’ve had diary after diary after diary after diary after diary after promoted diary make fun of Brooks, Fox News, The New Republic, and the mainstream media in general for their fairly twisted vision of who we are and what we do. Most people may think I’m rather humorless, but I do have a sense of humor, and I was especially able to appreciate Bob Johnson’s attempt at making dKos appear to be an orange version of Free Republic instead of a bastion of blogofascism.
However, the fact that these diaries have gotten recommended – and continue to stay on the recommended list for extended periods of time – makes me think that the blogosphere has come down with an extreme case of narcissism.
The media attacks on the blogosphere are nothing new – ever it has risen to prominence during Howard Dean’s meteoric ascent in 2003 while campaigning for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, the blogosphere has always been tagged as ‘the radical left’, ‘antiwar liberals’, ‘angry bloggers’, and so forth. While we may be angry, it’s a passionate, controlled anger – not an unchecked rage. And if we’re radical, it’s only because we’ve employed a relatively new medium – the Internet – and used it as a way to keep politicians more accountable than ever. The fact is, though, is that framing us as merely a bunch of people on the fringe hasn’t worked until now, and the C-Span coverage of Yearly Kos served well to show that. What is new, though, is that entire articles are now devoted to attacking and attempting to undermine the unity of the blogosphere. Passing references are made to us in articles about the CT-Sen Democratic primary or in political articles quite often nowadays, but having entire pages devoted to writing about us – this is new. And it seems more and more like we are taking this newfound attention to pump our egos up, beat our chests, and have one too many laughs.
Back in the good old days, such derisive remarks such as those made by Fox News would simply get a one-off laugh by people, and it would be back to business. Nowadays, though, the recommended list at dKos – arguably the most coveted spot by the masses of the blogosphere – is being occupied by pieces written about ourselves, written about how others write about ourselves, and read by ourselves. Yes, David Brooks deserves criticism for his belief that he knows how the Democratic Party operates best (that’s when we roll over and don’t attack back). And yes, Fox News should never be sold short on scorn when it comes to trying to play off of inter-blogosphere tension when something like the pie fights was a much bigger (if equally ridiculous) issue. But the amount of attention that the community seems to enjoy heaping upon itself after such an incident is an issue. If we’re supposed to believe that we’re going to have new people viewing dKos and other blogs after such an incident, wouldn’t it be better if we simply operated the way we usually do – you know, focusing on taking action, discussing important issues, and helping Democratic candidates get elected, whether it be via fundraising or by doing some volunteer work.
Yes, I know that I promised that I would never write another meta entry. That being said, I would hope that the liberal blogosphere – and Daily Kos in particular – would stop engaging in omphaloskepsis and get back to what it does best.