The Friedman Effect

Posted on September 30, 2004 in Blogging Journalists & Pundits

One of the writers at OC Metroblog is suggesting behind the scenes that we plan our coverage for the blog, meaning that we find writers to do politics, music, etc. I find this disturbing and have said so. Because it is a larger issue of interest to group blogs, I am bringing it out here.

Blogging is about people sticking their noses in places where Big Media refuses to allow them to go because they don’t have the credentials. We all saw what credentials did in the coverage of Bush’s ramping up to the Iraq War. The nation turned to Thomas Friedman, the New York Times’ expert on the Middle East. Friedman clucked a bit and declared that the war was fine because it would get rid of Saddam. It took him more than a year to half-admit that he’d been wrong. In the meantime, Iraq turned into a quagmire.

The lesson is that we cannot afford to have this kind of narrowing of voice in our free forum of ideas. I hold the system which styled Friedman as a last word on Iraq, which prevented “nonexperts” from having their say, as responsible for the war in a major way. Of course, Friedman himself must love the system because it shuts up his opponents. (We’ve seen on this very blog a recent example of a columnist who could not handle criticism.) Blogging emerged, in large part, as a way for outsiders to regain their right to participate in the discussion of major issues. I, for one, am not about to give that up.

If a blogger on a group blog wishes to focus her or his efforts in a particular area, that’s fine with me, but to “organize”, to “plan coverage” sounds to me like the makings of heavy-handed control and the birthing of prima donnas. There are many different perspectives on any issue facing the country today, more than the media leads us to believe. We are best served as a free people by evaluating the facts rather than the glamour of the personalities. The Friedman Effect cost us dearly on the national level. I’m not about to allow it to happen in the free forum of any blog that I am a part of.