Monday, October 11, 2004
Camille Paglia meets Matt Drudge
Sticking to the blogging theme, here is one of the more bizarre match-ups I have seen in recent times -- avowed feminist Camille Paglia interviewing uber-conservative muck raker, Matt Drudge. I will admit that I do read Drudge 3-4 times every day. Yes, I disagree with most of what he posts, but heck, they are mostly funny and he does scoop mainstream journalists half the time (thanks I am sure due to the earpiece Karl Rove gave him). Reading through the interview, I was surprised by several points Drudge (whom everyone assumes to be an arch conservative) makes...
But the Internet restrictions make me particularly crazy. Hands off my downloads, Hilary Rosen! Get out of my hard drive, Mr. Ashcroft! It's none of their business. And, ironically, Ashcroft argued as a senator that there should be no Big Brother police state on e-mails, even with the most heinous crimes. So to hide behind the World Trade Center to start going into our hard drives is a complete folly, and the Bush administration will pay the price with votes.
I was actually very on the fence on the war. It put me in a difficult position. If you've noticed, I thought I did a pretty clever job of at least sharing with readers what the U.K. Mirror, the Independent, all these antiwar outlets were doing. Probably it was perceived as just mischief-making, but it reflected my own lack of clarity about the war issue. I don't have to be clear, though. I'm not a politician.
Drudge had doubts about the Iraq war? Hmmmm.....I also agree with his take on the state of mainstream media today.
I used to think, at the beginning of the '90s, that we had a relatively free press and that people were out to make their reputations in the Woodward-Bernstein model. But I no longer think that. Most of the reporters on the networks and in main northeastern newspapers are company men—shmoozing careerists who are desperately afraid to rock the boat.
And if you thought, like I did, that Drudge was the grandfather of all the current crop of political bloggers, think again.
In the end I really don't care what I'm called, as long as it's not blogger.
But the Internet restrictions make me particularly crazy. Hands off my downloads, Hilary Rosen! Get out of my hard drive, Mr. Ashcroft! It's none of their business. And, ironically, Ashcroft argued as a senator that there should be no Big Brother police state on e-mails, even with the most heinous crimes. So to hide behind the World Trade Center to start going into our hard drives is a complete folly, and the Bush administration will pay the price with votes.
I was actually very on the fence on the war. It put me in a difficult position. If you've noticed, I thought I did a pretty clever job of at least sharing with readers what the U.K. Mirror, the Independent, all these antiwar outlets were doing. Probably it was perceived as just mischief-making, but it reflected my own lack of clarity about the war issue. I don't have to be clear, though. I'm not a politician.
Drudge had doubts about the Iraq war? Hmmmm.....I also agree with his take on the state of mainstream media today.
I used to think, at the beginning of the '90s, that we had a relatively free press and that people were out to make their reputations in the Woodward-Bernstein model. But I no longer think that. Most of the reporters on the networks and in main northeastern newspapers are company men—shmoozing careerists who are desperately afraid to rock the boat.
And if you thought, like I did, that Drudge was the grandfather of all the current crop of political bloggers, think again.
In the end I really don't care what I'm called, as long as it's not blogger.
