David Carr's column today is partly about a plan masterminded by Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco to create, quote, a "Council on Ethical Blogging and Aggregation," which will ostensibly serve as a sort of trade group or (nonbinding) credentialing organization for best practices in the blogosphere. Well-intended, and a bad idea.
When a blogger writes a blog post about something, that blogger will often put a "link" in the blog post that "links" to a related page on the internet. This is just part of blogging. Works pretty well. Until a massive corporation decides to actively get involved. Then, it becomes amusing.
The last time overeducated lit mag n+1 wrote a big think piece about a blog, they chased all the smart people away from this here website forever. Now, n+1 is back with yet another in their peerless "How to Overthink Things on the Internet That, In Actuality, Have Little if Any Overarching Theme or Philosophy." This one's for the ladiesssssssss!
Molly Fischer has thoughts about several popular internet "ladyblogs." Like what?
Fascinating experiment in professionalized ego-blogging Thought Catalog has finally figured out the secret of life. "Wonder What The Secret Of Life Is," Brandon Scott Gorrell muses in the title of a post that begins with a quote from Atlas Shrugged. (Then apologizes for beginning with a quote from Atlas Shrugged.)
Thought Catalog, the Slate.com of urban 25-year-old creative writing majors (and their spiritual kin) who are incapable of being boring, is redefining the art of blog post writing for a new and vibrant generation. Today's "The Different Types Of People You See At The Gym" is but one example of the fresh, unexplored literary frontiers that they are, you know, exploring. What other types of posts can you find on Thought Catalog?
You would think that the AP would be satisfied with its status as "last remaining source of non-local 'news' for 95% of American newspapers." But no! Now they want to be kings of the internet, and whatnot, as well.
In your ungrateful Thursday media column: we must all come together to defend Jim Romenesko, farewells at the NYDN, an election news vet dies, and Nickelodeon suffers.
Lisa Belkin used to write a parenting blog called Motherlode for the New York Times. Earlier this month, she was hired by the Huffington Post. Now, she finally gets to spread her wings and allow her creativity to flourish.
In your brash Tuesday media column: News Corp gets its balls back, the WSJ gets shorter and shorter, Katie Couric picks up odd jobs, Mary Pilon poached, and blog buys newspaper.
Oh, no! Erotic photobloggers and magazine interns everywhere were rocked with the news today that microblogging service Tumblr was the site of a prolonged "phishing" attack that seems to have stolen thousands of Tumblr logins and passwords. How will we ever be able to trust our favorite dogs-wearing-human-clothes blogs again?
Say what you will about Tom MacMaster, the married American grad student who pretended to be a kidnapped Syrian lesbian on the internet—at least he started his horrible fake blog to create (as he put it) "an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about." Well, that, and to cash in on a memoir written from the point of view of his alter ego, which he was shopping around in May.
In your mordant Thursday media column: Arianna Huffington offers concierge service, layoff rumors at Meredith (confirmed), Tina Brown on snark, the Guardian's digital future, and Greta Van Susteren's embarrassment of the day.
In your awful Wednesday media column: a war journalist is killed, another social media news thing exists, a new culture editor at the NYO, Mets writing is unbearable, and a blog anniversary.
