Well rounded reading is hard
There’s a good discussion about the reaction from the left and the right portion of the blogosphere to the fake CBS memo over at Pennywit. You should read the whole thing. The sentiment is that if you limit yourself to reading only left wing or right wing blogs, you will walk away from a particular story with a certain impression. Pennywit summarizes a few samples of this. Good read.
However, I have a problem with that. There are only a few left wing bloggers worth reading. For me personally, I don’t just pick a side and stick with it on all issues.
For example: I would be considered left wing or right wing depending on the issue. I am right wing on guns, taxes, the war on terror, and the role of government. I’m left wing on abortion, capital punishment, non-gun related civil liberties, and gay marriage.
Yet, there are only a few left wing political blogs I read. Heck, look at the Moonbattery section of my blogroll. There are only four blogs there. I also read quite a few left leaning Rocky Top Brigade blogs. Here are some of the left leaning political blogs that I read regularly (if I leave anyone out, it’s not on purpose – and if you don’t consider yourself leftist, I do and there’s nothing wrong with that):
The Rant
Brutal Hugs
Tim Lambert
Druq War Rant
SouthKnoxBubba
Damn Foreigner
Lean Left – Props to Leanleft for actually trying to debunk the fake memos with facts and not rhetoric. Kevin was still wrong but he gave it an honest shot.
Chris Wage
Resonance
Barry (though he’s not real political)
Smijer
Why do I read so few? Because the others are often filled with hatred, rhetoric, they are outright moonbats, or partisan hacks. (note: there are some right wing blogs that fit that description but I don’t read them either). For example, here are some prominent liberal blogs that I run across because blogs I do read link to them (it’s not based on TTLB or traffic or Technorati, just my exposure):
Atrios: Full of hatred, repeats tired old lies, and pointless partisan rhetoric. And if I could overlook that, the nausea from the vitriol called a comments section is enough to make me vomit.
DailyKos: More hateful rhetoric including saying Fuck ’em regarding civilian contractors killed in Iraq.
Oliver Willis: Oliver was a moderate guy a while back. I guess he drank the Kool Aid or something. He has seriously become a parody of himself. You don’t even have to try to make fun of him or find inconsistencies in his posts. Oliver is the antithesis of the other two, who are filled with blinding, partisan hatred. He’s just filed with inconsistent and boring partisan hate wrapped up in mediocre prose.
What I find amazing is that these three sites are popular. I guess they’re popular with people looking for easy targets to refute and the party faithful. Any middle of the road person is not going to be swayed by their commentary. In fact, their verbiage would likely turn many middle of the road folks away.
September 10th, 2004 at 11:37 am
Kos used to be way better. His posts during the war were second to none. His posts used to be inciteful, long and with few links. Now he (for the most part) just links to articles and then says something ridiculously partisan about them. And I agree..OW used to be way better too.
September 10th, 2004 at 12:04 pm
i read the Atrios one because one must be able to state the case of you position and refute others position as well.
I personally think everyone should read ender’s game.
their is a subplot about two kids gensuis who start blogs and take over the world
September 10th, 2004 at 12:53 pm
Uncle — Thanks for the kind words … and feel free to track back!
I tend mostly liberal, but I read multiple blogs. In my wanderings, I’ve only found a few blogs on each side that re worth reading. I would say the best thing to do is for the discerning reader to find the good blogs on both side … and set aside the rest.
–|PW|–
September 10th, 2004 at 1:29 pm
I couldn’t figure out your trackback system, sorry.
Good advice.
September 10th, 2004 at 3:53 pm
Hey SU – I find the more I post on political matters, the more it gets lost in the ether. I have a number of issues I tend to take the right-side view, and a (larger) number of issues I take the left-side view.
What makes it all confusing is that a number of them don’t really belong on a “side”. It just so happened that a majority of liberals believed a certain way on a certain issue when it became prominent, so it became known as a “liberal issue” and part of their talking points. There are some issues the same for conservatives.
That’s why I’m beginning to call myself a centrist, because so many issues aren’t based on a liberal or conservative theology (and that’s what it’s becoming, rather than a philosophy).
The (in my mind) contradictory logic behind the left and right positions on a) abortion and b) capital punishment for example…
September 11th, 2004 at 1:10 pm
Tracking back: The item labeled “trackback URL” IS the trackback URL. I keep waiting for somebody to write a better trackback module for my blogging package. I think there’s one out there … I may test it soon.
–|PW|–
September 11th, 2004 at 3:11 pm
I’ve still got a couple months before the election to become hate filled. Don’t count me out yet!
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:36 am
[…] I’ve written before about why I actually read so few lefty blogs and it has to do with the crazy, vile, hateful rhetoric which mostly fills their comment section. […]