Daily Show’s Jon Stewart interviewed Arianna Hufftington promoting the book The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. This interview encapsulates my biggest beef with the eternal “what is a blog” argument. People like Arianna Hufftington and other “weblebrities”, keep perpetuating this idea that blogging is about being personal and intimate. That you should write about your passions and even your “secret passions”. That it’s ok to publish that first draft, because as she says to Stewart, “first thoughts… best thoughts”.
The problem with that is that you’re never going to get really get good at “blogging”, and writing for that matter, spitting out your first mental fart about x topic. Sure, you will always find an “audience”, but it won’t be as big if you actually take a little more time, try harder, and just simply ask yourself if what you have to say matters.
There’s a part in the interview that gets at the gist of the problem with the “what is a Blog meme”. Part of the interview is resumed below:
Stewart: But write about your passion, write about what you know… isn’t that the essence of writing? What is blogging? How is that different?
Huffington: The difference about blogging is that as we say now… rule #2, first thoughts… best thoughts. Like don’t over think it. Don’t over write it. It’s more of a way you would email a friend.
Stewart: It’s a first draft.
Hufftington: It’s a first draft of history. For example, email a friend or blog about… Your show… How many people haven’t blogged about the fact that you compared Keith Olberman to Sean Hannity.
Stewart: What? How many people blogged about it? I don’t know?
Hufftington: On the Hufftington Post many people blogged about asking, “Can you believe that Jon compared Keith Olberman to Sean Hannity?” So the idea is that you blog about that.
Stewart: But doesn’t that seem like a waste of people’s time? Shouldn’t those people be out discussing cheese?
Hufftington: That’s actually a very good point your making. Because…
Stewart: But how is that different… It’s just a larger… When you say blogged about it… I’m confused know with the difference between… you know, lets say a guy like Josh Marshall who is doing the Talking Points Memo and it… really analyses issues and just people commenting. Just commenting like, “I think he’s a dick for saying something I disagree with” is different than…
Huffintington: Absolutely. And thats were we cover the spectrum in the book from the kind of thing that Josh Marshall does to what we do, which is breaking stories….
———————————-
Stewart: You asked me backstage, when are you going to blog for me and I said to you, I have a television show. So when I have thoughts I put them in the little screen in the living room.
Hufftington: But I bet you have more thoughts than what you use in the show. As you know I’m a blogging evangelist….
Stewart: But why should I give people the dreck? Shouldn’t I try to and focus it and make it as good as I can? Because my other thoughts… there’s a reason I haven’t put them in the show.
Also check out these videos were Jon Stewart gets asked by Hufftington why he doesn’t blog. His reply is priceless.
The beauty of the web is that everyone can express themselves, but don’t make self expression and opinion into something more than it actually is. The interview captures everything that’s wrong with defining blogging as personal opinion and as something more profound than it actually is. Again, there’s nothing theoretically wrong with everyone expressing and sharing themselves online, but because you can, it doesn’t mean that you should.
I don’t read the Hufftinton Post, but by taking a look at it, I’m pretty doubtful that they get read a lot because they’re intimate, personal, and post immediately the first draft.
The problem is not that the word “blog” or “blogging” is defined erroneously, that’s beside the point and who cares by now when it means so many things to so many different people. The real problem is saying and promoting the idea that writing about everything that you think about, without giving it much thought before hand, is going to lead you somewhere. It’s not.
This is an interesting take on the writing process. I couldn’t survive the entire video and got more instead out of your cliff noted version. But to cut to the point, I would be interested to know if YOU think my writing falls on the grassy side of the fence where the content is focused and relevant or on the delapidated and withering side of personal opinions and ‘dreck.’ Perhaps I am in need of some fertilizer. Or maybe not. Awaiting your response…
I’m the wrong person you should be asking -I’m basically a “manchild”
and I don’t have kids- but I think it’s definitely more on the side of focused and relevant. I think blogs like yours and Dooce offer a lot of value to people, specially when they are well written.
[...] How many people haven’t blogged about the fact that you compared Keith Olberman to Sean Hannity . Stewart: What? How many people blogged about it? I don’t know? Hufftington: On the Hufftington Post many people blogged about asking, …[Continue Reading] [...]
Blogging is keeping a weB LOG… logging your thoughts even if its a brain dump has value for the blogger even if you as a blog reader do not care for it. Some blogs are more like newspaper columns where they are thought out like you prefer, others are just starting points to kick off conversation from blog readers, kind of like a forum* or an email. I wouldn’t expect an email or a forum post to be as well thought out as I would a newspaper column.
*The difference between a blog and a forum however is like the difference between a talk radio host taking calls about a particular subject verses open lines where users pick the subject matter.
My lack of archives belies the fact that my time writing on the web pre-dates the word “blog.” When I started people had online journals, portfolio sites, and sites that linked to other sites (like a personal Digg or Reddit).
Many of the online journals and portfolio sites developed a “News” page or section that was periodically updated. The “News” page talked about recent changes and additions to the websites, and things happening in the life of the website’s owner. The owner even linked to other things the s/he thought was nifty.
The “News” section became more and more prominent until, for many people, it essential *became* the site. These became Web Logs WebLogs bLogs Blogs.
I was writing before there was an internet. I’m one of those dreamers who wanted to write a novel, or have an essay or two published in a magazine somewhere. I was a member of a writing group. We met on Thursday’s once or twice a month. We’d read our stuff to each other. Critique. Talk about writing. Occasionally bragged about being published in a small magazine or the local rag.
And then the internet exploded –
I got my own site that was going to be a portfolio site for my writing. But the “News” section became the important section. Suddenly I had an audience reading what I wrote. The more I wrote the more people came. I became a better and better writer. I was finding my voice and being comfortable with it.
I had a weblog. And, I’m sorry Ms. Huffington, I almost never publish my first draft.
Maybe I don’t have a weblog.
(Sorry, Jay, for co-opting your website. I return you back to your regularly scheduled programming …)
(ps This was a first draft.)
In the interview Arianna Hufftinton had with Charlie Rose she at least didn’t come out looking like a fool. I mean, she had more than 6 minutes, like 30 minutes to make the case for blogging and Rose wasn’t like Stewart pressuring and asking her to point the difference between “blogging” from writing. Journalism is journalism, opinion is opinion, and commentary is commentary. I guess my biggest beef like I mentioned is selling “blogging” as personal and intimate journalism, when it’s really just people with web sites. Sometimes people express their opinions, sometimes their just chatty, and sometimes there are people that actually write great stuff. I think we need more of the last one.
*This comment was edited to add that last sentence.
By and large, I’m trying for the latter. There’s plenty of fluff between the better stuff.
I’ve never really been comfortable calling my website a “blog” anyway. I used to spell it “blahg.”
It’s a goofy word with a hundred meanings.
You’re right, I think. It’s just people with websites.
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