Dean Esmay has some ideas here.
Our view. He’s on target. The problem with TMV, though, is that he comes from a news background and there will be stories that break that he might not want to cover but his journalistic “juices” get going and he’s compelled to cover them. A lot depends on how each person views their site. Is it strictly opinion (nothing wrong with that)? Or does the site seek to comment on the major stories (nothing wrong with that)? A mix? Is the goal to keep the site where it is? Increase the audience? Use any audience increases to help other smaller blogs get an audience (one of our goals)?
He’s right on one thing: people need to view a weblog as an info/idea source that goes through a specific filter — the thought processes of the person/persons who write it. In the case of this site, we get blasted all the time by others (and on New Year’s Eve we get blasted on our own) on the right and left (and recently on a talk show by a host who invited TMV on and used the whole segment to question whether he was REALLY a moderate). Each person who writes has to do their own thing. And if some people don’t like it, they will likely find other places to go — and you have many others who will respect and like it — if what do you is your best shot and sincere.
One top blogger has mentioned to TMV something that TMV also notices: he sleeps better after he posts on his site. Some readers say they sleep better while reading this site.
But Dean Esmay’s advice is good, solid advice from someone who has carved out a loyal following even though some may differ on some of the points.
He also has one key point. It truly is helpful to know why you’re writing your own weblog — and that gets into his point about avoiding shouting matches with other bloggers. We know that some people love that kind of debate, but TMV personally started his weblog to comment on issues and news and to also try to offer readers a cross section of perspectives on some issues. It wasn’t to get into blogwars.
In the few instances where TMV has been singled out for a potential blogwar, his own reaction is to just move on and read other blogs. No me interesa. There are other co-bloggers on this site who may feel differently but TMV personally does not do blogwars and reads blogs that deal with issues (the blogroll you see on this site is a WORKING BLOGROLL used by TMV and is not for show).
Note that we have never questioned another weblog writer’s motives or lambasted them just because they have a different view. We don’t name call or try to “define” other people who write weblogs. We respect them for putting in the time and effort, usually for no or little compensation….even if they have a totally different take or perspective.
We didn’t start this weblog nearly two years ago to go to war against bloggers and make the focus of what we write on blogs. Others may have a totally different view and they can do their thing (we just won’t enter into that part of it). If you’re a regular reader of this site, you note that we post often but have no idea of the circumstances (the earlier post on Judith Miller was done at Starbucks on a break during a 600-mile drive). Shouting matches with other weblog writers would burn TMV out.
He’d rather take all that energy (that doing a blogwar would entail) and put it into new posts and also — as we did during the Ed Schultz interview — expand the number of posts presenting ORIGINAL reporting on this site.