And I will walk through the front door

Reading through Aaron Gleeman's post this morning and especially his reflections on becoming a full-time sports writer as a result of his blogging activities, it strikes me that the big tectonic shift in media that blog triumphalists are always talking about has been highly overrated. (Guilty as charged, BTW.) I think what's happened and what will continue to happen is that instead of a pipeline that takes otherwise unqualified talking heads like Katie Couric and pushes them to the top of the journalism ladder, we're going to have a pyramid of talent that doesn't really have a clear and pointy top. Instead of a handful of prima donna news anchors and pundits, the field is going to be a lot more open, and I'd like to think that audiences for the remaining mass media are going to be able to point out the vapidity and uselessness of people like Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, and the media will react by getting rid of those people or at least cutting their paychecks, in the same way that a baseball team releases or trades a second baseman who's become too slow on the basepaths, a wuss at the plate, and doesn't turn the double play as well as he used to.

What we might end up seeing, as some people have remarked about the music business in this new age of Long Tail markets and direct-from-the-artist marketing, is a lot fewer superstars making the megabucks and a lot more folks living a comfortable bobo kind of life. Which would be kind of nice, really, and on a macro level would help us remain at the top of the global entertainment heap.

In other news, I see that Jim Webb has nailed down his seat in the Senate. (Instapundit). I think it'll be an interesting six years. Despite being against the war in Iraq, Webb is a populist, not a socialist, and that's going to make for some uneasy relationships in the Senate majority caucus. He might well find himself keeping a lot of company with Joe Lieberman on defense issues and crossing the aisle on domestic issues. Best case for conservatives, of course, is that he's the second coming of Zell Miller, but I'm not expecting that myself - Zell was one of the last of the old-fashioned Southern Democrats, most of whom switched parties in the 1980s.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Mitch Berg says Bring on your show trials! and notes the absence of complaints about vote fraud, Diebold machinations, et cetera. Yeah. Funny thing about that. This doesn't mean ACORN's off the hook with the DOJ, though.

Jim Treacher comments on the election: “Does this mean Bush is still Hitler? I’m pretty sure Hitler never let his opponents win an election, did he? Unless ... this is all part of Rove’s plan.” Other pithy observations here, and don't miss the comments. (Tim Blair)

And I will walk through the front door

Reading through Aaron Gleeman's post this morning and especially his reflections on becoming a full-time sports writer as a result of his blogging activities, it strikes me that the big tectonic shift in media that blog triumphalists are always talking about has been highly overrated. (Guilty as charged, BTW.) I think what's happened and what will continue to happen is that instead of a pipeline that takes otherwise unqualified talking heads like Katie Couric and pushes them to the top of the journalism ladder, we're going to have a pyramid of talent that doesn't really have a clear and pointy top. Instead of a handful of prima donna news anchors and pundits, the field is going to be a lot more open, and I'd like to think that audiences for the remaining mass media are going to be able to point out the vapidity and uselessness of people like Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, and the media will react by getting rid of those people or at least cutting their paychecks, in the same way that a baseball team releases or trades a second baseman who's become too slow on the basepaths, a wuss at the plate, and doesn't turn the double play as well as he used to.

What we might end up seeing, as some people have remarked about the music business in this new age of Long Tail markets and direct-from-the-artist marketing, is a lot fewer superstars making the megabucks and a lot more folks living a comfortable bobo kind of life. Which would be kind of nice, really, and on a macro level would help us remain at the top of the global entertainment heap.

In other news, I see that Jim Webb has nailed down his seat in the Senate. (Instapundit). I think it'll be an interesting six years. Despite being against the war in Iraq, Webb is a populist, not a socialist, and that's going to make for some uneasy relationships in the Senate majority caucus. He might well find himself keeping a lot of company with Joe Lieberman on defense issues and crossing the aisle on domestic issues. Best case for conservatives, of course, is that he's the second coming of Zell Miller, but I'm not expecting that myself - Zell was one of the last of the old-fashioned Southern Democrats, most of whom switched parties in the 1980s.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Mitch Berg says Bring on your show trials! and notes the absence of complaints about vote fraud, Diebold machinations, et cetera. Yeah. Funny thing about that. This doesn't mean ACORN's off the hook with the DOJ, though.

Jim Treacher comments on the election: “Does this mean Bush is still Hitler? I’m pretty sure Hitler never let his opponents win an election, did he? Unless ... this is all part of Rove’s plan.” Other pithy observations here, and don't miss the comments. (Tim Blair)

On this day in history...

...the people of Berlin did Gorbachev's job for him and tore down the Berlin Wall.

On this day in history...

...the people of Berlin did Gorbachev's job for him and tore down the Berlin Wall.

I couldn't resist you, I'm not deaf dumb and blind

Do people like this student even realize how bigoted they sound? Makes me wonder how long we'll have to wait for a new Test Act that also bars evangelicals -or people who look and sound like evangelicals- from office. Judging from the confirmation hearings for Justice Alito last year, some people evidently think there's one in effect already.

Tonight I'll probably be working on my apazine for this weekend's StippleAPA, which as usual I've done absolutely nothing with in the last six weeks since Arcana. I did a little background work for Blood Red Skies today which should make writing the battle scenes in the middle chapters a lot easier, but I'm dubious about whether I'll actually get any actual writing done.

As for the weekend, aside from the Stipple collation, a stop by the library to pick up the new David Drake novel Some Golden Harbor (one of the Lieutenant Leary series, featuring the most lethal librarian in the universe) and a programming meeting with thaadd sometime Sunday, I don't have any plans, because those usually require money, and that's going to be scarce for a while.

I couldn't resist you, I'm not deaf dumb and blind

Do people like this student even realize how bigoted they sound? Makes me wonder how long we'll have to wait for a new Test Act that also bars evangelicals -or people who look and sound like evangelicals- from office. Judging from the confirmation hearings for Justice Alito last year, some people evidently think there's one in effect already.

Tonight I'll probably be working on my apazine for this weekend's StippleAPA, which as usual I've done absolutely nothing with in the last six weeks since Arcana. I did a little background work for Blood Red Skies today which should make writing the battle scenes in the middle chapters a lot easier, but I'm dubious about whether I'll actually get any actual writing done.

As for the weekend, aside from the Stipple collation, a stop by the library to pick up the new David Drake novel Some Golden Harbor (one of the Lieutenant Leary series, featuring the most lethal librarian in the universe) and a programming meeting with thaadd sometime Sunday, I don't have any plans, because those usually require money, and that's going to be scarce for a while.