The Anchoress

Well, some sectors in news and entertainment have been all-of-a-doodah for the past several days, because Arianna Huffington, who is concerned about energy consumption and never takes a private jet unless it’s already going her way, was about to unveil her latest enterprise: A blog choking with celebrity musings and pieces from columnists, pundits and other thinkers.

Because these poor folks on the left were not being covered in the mainstream media and needed to have their voices heard. Really! I read it in the Washington Post!

I wasn’t all that interested - I am never particularly intrested to read what celebrities have to say about anything - but I did toddle over there and have a looksee.

As my granny would say with a shrug, “Eh!”

The layout reminds me a little of The Onion. Laurie David, wife of Larry David writes about bad old car manufacturers and how they waste energy. I believe her air-conditioned home is 5,000 square feet with an air-conditioned 4 car garage on the side, but she does drive a Prius, so she’s pretty noble. I read Walter Shapiro’s odd piece about how he isn’t reading newspapers as much, being so terribly busy auditing a class on the New Testament, which he has never read before because - tee-hee - well, darling, you know, it’s such a red-state, unsophisticated sort of thing, that is simply not done by we folks at Harvard! He tells us he knows little about scripture, but ends his column suggesting that he will have to go buy a news paper because of Judeo/Christian guilt. Wow! Original! What a thinker! I’m impressed.

Well…really, I’m not. I found it kind of boring, and I expect that come 2006, the site will take on a keen shrillness that will travel up my spine and give me headaches, so I will probably simply stay away. I do not predict failure for the endeavor, however.

Like Michelle Malkin I do think this venture will work out for Ms. Huffington - things usually do work out for her and she is doing here what she does best, presenting her lovely friends and their lovely lives, giving their lovely opinions to the public-at-large. As The Rock said in Be Cool, “Twinkle, twinkle, baby, twinkle, twinkle!” People will read it because people are habitually starstruck, which is why People Magazine still exists.

Ann Althouse is not terribly impressed, either, but she is more interested in it than I and will stick with it, I think, even though Laurie David let her down. Dirty Harry is amused in a sort of morbidly fascinated way.

It is interesting to consider the evolution of blogging, though. Now the very same pampered people who have always been able to simply pick up a phone and get any editor in the nation to take their calls and print their thoughts seem to feel that they have no voice without a blog. That says a great deal about print journalism.

And so, these journalists, actors, talk show hosts and columnists gather into this borg, I mean, BLOG collective and begin the process of becoming all that they hated last year: bloggers.

Meanwhile the oldguard bloggers are forming a collective of their own, and I think it’s a pretty good idea - a means of helping smaller blogs grow and while bringing blogger sensibilities into mainstream and breaking news situations - worldwide. It’s an exciting plan which will have the effect of re-invigorating the craft of journalism, which has become both corkscrew in its language and predictable in its presentment. But while the Pajamas Media idea is creative and shows a great deal of promise, it will necessarily serve to tame some of the more rootin’ tootin, “wild west” aspects of blogging. As with any great and free endeavor, regulations and rules will shortly begin to be applied, over and above the standard practices of “netiquette.”

I think I will miss that untamed, unpredictable blogosphere. Being an Anchoress, I am and will always remain, alone…but the writing on the wall seems to suggest to me that blogs will begin to coalesce (or congeal) into larger entities kept up and running by these “collectives.” What began as a daring and free-wheeling experiment will - it is inevitable - become mainstream. Actually, with the opening of Huffington’s place, that has already happened.

That’s not a bad thing, in and of itself. It’s actually the natural progression of a good and successful idea. As blogs become more mainstream there will be dynamic uniformity and with that a certain dilution and lukewarmness. I wonder if we won’t see the blogosphere break off into classes and spheres, just as we do in real life, “join the collective or die.”

One thing I think the mainstreaming of blogs will do is prevent this sort of silencing by the government. At least, I hope so. If Singapore wants to play heavy with a blogger, or if Canada, trembling like a fragile old auntie, wants to shut down the threatening truths which emerge from the more stalwart and intrepid among us, well…then I think the inclusion of these rather privileged folk from Huffington’s place will help to prevent the same such shutting down of voices here in America. Just as bloggers from the right and the left are angry at the possible harrassement coming our way from the McCain-Feingold bill, bloggers rich and poor, powerful or un, will find a common interest in promoting the rights of free expression for each other, for as long as they wish to blog.

So, welcome to this crew from “the coast” (I have always been amused by people who tell me, here in NY, where I routinely walk the coastline, that they are from “the coast.”) I doubt I’ll read them much, but their presence is a good thing.

Doug at Bogus Gold has a thoughtful response that takes my own thoughts much further, and I think he may be right - that what is going on here is more “refinement” than an actual shift. He makes some good points you’ll want to go read.

Beth, on the other hand, has a funny and profane post on la Huffington’s new blog. Read at your own risk.

Lastly, Jimmy at Sundries Shack latches on to the irony of a blog loaded with millionaires writing about wealth redistribution. Once gets the sense that they are not considering the redistribution of their wealth. Just someone else’s. I don’t know who that might be. Jimmie is firing on all cylinders and you’ll want to simply scroll up and down and spend some time at his site.