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LAT Local Blogging Article
By Publius | July 26, 2007
I’m surprised more blogs haven’t picked up on the Jonathan Abrams LAT article that mentioned us Monday.
I think part of the problem is that many bloggers, like most citizens, see local issues as boring and sense that people who are intensely interested in such issues are usually just buzzing gadflies of one sort or another. And most of the time, most people are mostly right.
However, I think the article goes to show that technology (which is merely a tool) is enabling local residents to get back in touch with their community and become more involved in local politics. Just look at Sierra Madre over the last year. Whatever else happened, that was democracy in action. Messy? Yes. But in the end, Sierra Madre deserves that All-American City Award or whatever the hell it was, because that’s the things are supposed to work. I’m serious, folks.
A sign of this is the fact that it is very difficult for true corruption to ever take root in Sierra Madre, mainly because there are too many people paying too much attention to what’s going on. You have a problem with silly Sierra Madre? Try going to some of the cities in which our pal Arnie Alvarez-Glasman and friends have worked or are working now. It ain’t purty.
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Topics: Media |
July 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I’ve been indirectly credited with getting so many people interested in Pasadena’s politics, thanks to my blog and campaign.
July 26th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I wrote about the article here: http://www.pasadenaconversations.com/2007/07/24/they-can-put-things-on-the-blog-that-have-no-basis-in-fact-and-you-really-cant-refute-it/
July 26th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Sir Arnie = thug.
Correction: ignorant thug.
[The opinion expressed in this comment box does not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of the owners of this blog. I am a fully independent crack-pot local blog reader and commentator (accent on the tator), and nothing more. Thank you.]
Carry on.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I think the column is being ignored because the editors stripped the guts out of it — you know, the part where he wanted to say that the reason blogs are flourishing is because the LA Times has simply walked away from any decent coverage of any city other than LA.
Without that point, made strongly, the article read like a book missing half its pages.
I mean, Long Beach has 450,000 people in it. When is the last time the Times mentioned its politics?
While I’m on this rant, did everyone catch the latest circulation numbers for the Times? 816,000 average daily circulation and 1.1 million on Sunday in March 2007 [The daily count is down 15% in just five years!]
Not only is the Times the fastest-dropping circulation of the top 10 nationwide (except, perhaps the Dallas and Chicago papers that have outright stopped reporting circuation figures), The Times is in one of the biggest markets: there’s what, 5 million households in the Times’s five-county area?
July 26th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Everyone is losing print circulation, not just the Times, though news web sites are gaining readers. People can say they don’t cover the greater lacounty area well enough, but they were doing the same thing before the slide.
No one knows how to fix newspapers. Local coverage could be the answer, but it may not be. Blogs could be the answer, but it may not be. Papers as we know it may end; no one knows. Trust me, we are all trying to figure out how the next generation wants their information.
btw, the reason the Times story wasn’t all that big of a deal is because its been said before.
p.s. I kick the Times a lot, but trust me, I know we would all be worse off without it.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
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July 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
We will always need traditional, well trained journalists who know how to investigate a story and are given the freedom to do their job.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Edward, I generally agree with your points, but the LA Times’s slide is much faster and larger than any of the other major newspapers in the country.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:20 am
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July 27th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Hey, this blog is sliding down the shit pole faster than anything. The owner, I think it’s name is Pubic something or other. What a lousy little crap hound Pubics is.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Real mature.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:18 am
It is unfortunate that those without real things to say (or real defenses to their very real issues/problems) have to resort to obscenities. Grow up!
July 27th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Bless you
July 27th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Hmm. Maintenance!
I feel for ya, buddy.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:47 am
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July 30th, 2007 at 8:47 am
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