The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Monday, March 21, 2011

Making a true impact

Congratulations to joemygod for receiving Outstanding Blog Award at the GLAAD awards this weekend.

Now that blogs are getting recognition I'd like to see them start to hire reporters and pay them to actually report news instead of linking to items from other outlets. Now THAT would be progress, and making the internet really work for us.

I regularly read Talkingpointsmemo, Huffpost, GoodAsYou, Joemygod, Towleroad, and a host of others, and I spend a couple hours a day trying to crank out a meager paycheck (in addition to working a job and teaching and making pottery) from writing of my own, so I know whereof I speak.

I doubt that Joe and Jeremy and Andy Towle are making millions off their blogs, and I get what overhead can do to the bottom line believe me, but stringers can change everything. Usually they're people not unlike me who are willing to gather and write news and have it published by the respective outlet that paid for it.  Sometimes in addition to being allowed to publish it themselves on their own blog. And they can bring a perspective to not only change but build readership.

So maybe it's our time. With the economy being changed to the advantage of those who will benefit the most and who ultimately control the game perhaps it's time to change the game a bit, change the rules on them and see how they like playing catchup like we always have to.

 I should say right now that I don't pretend that this blog is anything but what it appears to be, an outlet for me to express opinion and the occasional rant. I sometimes aspire to making it more, but then I see the difficulty in making that a reality and think I might not have the stamina for it. Besides my inability to commit has paralyzed me for decades why change now.

But I can dream can't I?

And so it goes: