The Decline of Blogging As We Knew It Part 1: Identity Crisis

Earlier today I mentioned that there were some issues facing all blogs in Ohio, and in this post I’d like to share some of my thoughts. First up, the identity crisis many bloggers (including myself) seem to be having.

The simple fact is this: blogging went mainstream, and we didn’t cope with it very well. We’ve basically tried to become the mainstream media without the money, resources, or reach that they have. I mean think about this. Two 20-somethings hop on planes to Denver and attempt to cover the Democratic National Convention. Let’s lay out the battle lines just to be very clear:

Team BSB

• Two young guys.
• One press credential good for one of a highly limited amount of seats in the nosebleed section.
• limited budget, mostly already spent on travel and lodging.
• a laptop, cell phone, and point and shoot camera each.
• A hotel 18 miles out of town, with Nick’s rental car being the only real way to make the journey to the light rail station a few miles away.

Team NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX, CBS, PBS, etc…

• A team of experienced journalists.
• Dedicated press boxes.
• Dozens of credentials of all levels.
• Outside workspace.
• Several satellite trucks.
• Millions of dollars of equipment.
• A budget easily 10x the amount this site will ever earn.

Team Plain Dealer, Dispatch, DDN, etc…

• A handful of reporters.
• Reasonable budgets.
• Better credentials.
• Professional equipment.
• Access to everything coming from Team AP or whatever wire service they were a part of.

And did I mention that we spent the whole week fighting with ODP, who wanted to make it very clear that they didn’t want us there?

But I think you get the picture, we’ve set our goals a little too lofty. The idea that we’d spend all that money and site resources in the hopes we’d somehow stumble across a huge story everyone else missed is laughable. Instead we should have been going after stories the MSM was too lazy, intimidated, or biased to pursue.

But beyond that, we’ve sacrificed almost everything that makes a blog unique.

We temper our positions so we don’t risk our fragile credibility. Think all the blogs are in the tank for Brunner? Show me one that’s even tried to raise a buck for her on ActBlue. And if the pro-Brunner rhetoric out there now is the best blogs can do, we might as well pack it in now. Think back to 2006 for a minute, the Brown vs. Hackett primary. If we had it to do over again, do you really believe any blogger would support Hackett like they did back then? Keep dreaming. And boy didn’t Senator Mike DeWine benefit from all of the in-fighting during the primary?

We’ve become sheep, satisfied to sit back and let everything that every blogger worked for fall apart so we don’t offend anyone.

So if I truly believe Jennifer Brunner is the best Senate candidate, why shouldn’t I blog about it? If Lee Fisher wins the primary, do you honestly think he’ll turn away the support of bloggers just because they didn’t support him in the primary? And if he does, than he doesn’t deserve our support.

And what about readers who support Fisher, will they become persona non grata? Not hardly, the true Fisher supporters will be in the comments and forums trying to rip my arguments to shreds (much like they did with Modern’s posts). Most of us are more than capable of respectful debate, and the site will be better for it. But if BSB goes all in for Brunner, maybe some Fisher supporters might even be inspired to go out and start their own blogs to shake things up even more.

And really, isn’t shaking things up what blogging was all about?