Yes, it’s finally time to offer a formal statement to the readers each week who write that this CAN’T be a moderate site because we DARE to criticize a Republican or DARE to criticize a Democrat or DARE to link to a conservative site or DARE to link to a liberal site.
Guess what? We USE our big blogroll to read for our OWN pleasure, to see what people with different perspectives are saying — and also use it as a working tool for this website to link to many sites of differing opinions in our posts and our (in)famous mega-roundups.
This week we’ve been blasted in comments and emails for daring to suggest that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts answer some questions during his confirmation hearings (that makes us NOT moderate and clearly “liberal”), for some comments on the Democrats (that makes us NOT moderate and part of the “conservative echo chamber”).
We’ve also been called NOT MODERATE because we have DARED to:
- Quote and link to law professor Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit (shows this is a conservative Republican site masking as moderate).
- Quote and link to Daily Kos (shows this is a liberal site masking as moderate).
- Link to the quite extensive news story and blog roundups by Michelle Malkin (we had one reader even post several comments about how he would never ever visit this site again if we dared link to her and he has since stopped visiting and commenting).
- Quote and link to The Talking Dog (unpredictable but is too liberal so this site is a liberal site)
- Quote, link to and applaud the independence of Citizen Smash, a leading military blogger who rightfully calls himself the IndePundit since he doesn’t adhere to a strictly partisan line.
- Quote and link to Americablog (which makes this a liberal Democratic site). ETC……….
Guess what?
Reading and considering other ideas doesn’t cause cancer.
Linking to someone who put a lot of work into compiling a superb roundup that can give readers a wealth of information at the click of their mouse — saving them hours of looking it up themselves — doesn’t make you a Nazi or a Communist or a secret agent of Howard Dean or Karl Rove. Or (God forbid) Dennis Kucinich..
And would you believe it: if your eyes just happen to see a concept or political stance that you don’t agree with, you won’t go blind. Viagra and that activity your mother warned you about could be more dangerous.
So, no, we don’t want to lose readers.
And, no, we aren’t too won over, convinced or impressed with people who need to spend their time — and waste ours — by trying to hurl adjectives at us, defining us as being in one camp.
We’re in OUR OWN CAMP which at times will please Democrats, at times please independents, and at times please GOPers. And maybe enfuriate everyone. And that’s how TMV has voted all his life.
But, honestly?
We’re NOT going to stop quoting and linking to InstaPundit, Michelle Malkin or Citizen Smash.
We’re NOT going to stop quoting and linking to Daily Kos, AmericaBlog or The Talking Dog.
We’re going to keep reading ALL ideas and positions and present to readers on this site MANY IDEAS from MANY people — and our own.
We didn’t start a weblog to allow ANYONE to censor who we read, what arguments we quote and dictate to us what we must either agree with or don’t — or what links we put in our posts. Wanna know a secret? Weblogs are supposed to allow the writers to have total control and unfettered editorial and intellectual freedom (although, admittedly, using the word “intellectual” to describe this site is a stretch).
Does that make us liberal, or conservative? If some folks get their jollies by hurling names and labels, whatever makes you smile makes us smile. We are here to serve you.
But in serving you we won’t restrict the ideas we read, think about and link to. You can start your OWN BLOG and do that — and we will probably link to to YOU.
So here’s the definitive answer:
READER: How can you call yourself a moderate?
TMV: Like this: I’m a moderate.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.