I’ve been thinking about blogging—the activity—lately, with the Costas-Bissinger incident and the demise of Capital Punishment.
About the former, Buzz Bissinger is a jackass: this isn’t news. To take his commentary seriously is to think that Michael Moore and Bill O’Reilly have something interesting to say. (If I have insulted one of your intellectual heroes, I’m not sorry.) The real issue was Costas allowing Bissinger to behave that way on his show and not moderate the discussion. I don’t watch his show—I don’t have HBO for fear of stumbling across pornography—but if this is how he normally hosts discussions the show must be awful. Anyway, my point is that this was a set-up by Costas, and he deserves most of the blame for allowing Bissinger to behave like that. All Will Leitch could do was stare in awe at the spectacle like the rest of us. The proper response would have been to turn to Costas and say, “are you going to allow this?” If he then acknowledged that Bissinger’s commentary was worthwhile, he would have been justified in walking off the set.
As for Capital Punishment leaving the blogoshpere, I know how Chris feels.
I’ve done plenty of writing these last few years. Lord knows how many books I’ve essentially written. And finding new things to say is tough. (I’d say ‘interesting’ things, too, but that’d imply that half my posts were!)
It’s time to move on.
First, congrats to Chris on a great run. One of the things I like about blogs is that it is easy to get highly-specific commentary. I often get asked what blogs I read. Aside from a few big ones, I’m normally bouncing around to get local commentary. When the Nats make a trade, Capital Punishment would be one of my first stops.
Second, I get this same feeling every so often. Normally, it comes when I’ve got a lot of other distractions in my life. I have considered shutting down at times, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Right now, I’m having one of those slow times. But, I can’t walk away. I fear that the day I commit to stopping, something will happen that I will want to comment on. This is why I love blogging: you’re not required to say anything, but you always have an outlet say something that you want to be said. Some people run their blogs like regular publications, with commitments to post every day. I can’t do this, or if I did, then I would have to stop. It’s the lack of requirement or deadline that keeps it enjoyable. I know this might be frustrating to readers, but I just cannot worry about that. It’s like my father-in-law who refinishes furniture as a hobby. He won’t accept payment for valuable work, because the activity loses the fun.
Now, if someone paid me to do this regularly, I might not be so turned off by a schedule—I might actually feel the need to do a better job at proof-reading. But, right now, I’ll just ride out the slow times like I normally do. When inspiration strikes, I blog; otherwise, I’ve got plenty of other stuff I need to be doing. And thanks to those of you who stick around. Just because I don’t write all the time, doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate you.
Posted by JC in General
