Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Iowa - And the Rest of the Campaign

I don't have much to say about the politics or results of the Iowa caucuses that hasn't already been said - and probably much better - by others. But something I did notice intrigued me. So I thought I'd wait a few days and see if I was just imagining it.

But no...

I noticed that all the talking heads on network and cable news, all the supposed pundits and reporters from the major papers, not one of them said anything more probing or insightful than I'd been reading in blogs for the months and weeks before the caucuses. If you tour most of the blogs in my blogroll of the Liberal Coalition or just about any of the "bigger" bloggers you'll find some incredibly cogent writing on the issues, on the candidates and on the outcomes. You'll also find just as many misses in calling the results. What you won't find in just about all of the blogs I read regularly and that I've grown to depend on as sounding boards and sources of analysis is the pack mentality of the SCLM. None of the blogs I truly like ever engaged in tearing down one Democratic candidate or another.

They were, in a word, more professional than the professionals.

That doesn't mean I'll be giving up the major news outlets, but it does say a lot about how far our media has fallen. And how far bloggers have risen.

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