|
Thursday, August 7, 2003
Rush judgement 
| | Although it is never safe to predict with any confidence what will happen over the next 15 years, I doubt that blogging or any specific bloggers will match Limbaugh¹s record-setting pace for gathering influence in the political process. Blogging lacks four key elements in Limbaugh¹s formula for success. |
| | He lists show prep, production technique, entertainment value and audience bondage. Here's how he details the last item: |
| | Fourth, Limbaugh builds bonds with his audience. He provides enough details about his personal life that loyal listeners know something about his parents, brother, wife, their cats, his golf game, his diet, his hearing problems, etc. Those revelations allow listeners to have a "friendship" relationship with Rush that solidifies their place in his daily audience. Though some nonpolitical bloggers write much about their personal lives, the most influential political bloggers reveal few intimate details about their personal lives, making it more difficult for their readers to bond with them. |
| | Who is he talking about? The two most influential bloggers (by my lights, anyway), Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan, are both right wingers who reveal plenty about their personal lives and enjoy real working relationships with readers. Those relationships are far more deep and useful than those Rush enjoys with listeners. Not a knock on Rush's callers, but they don't provide links, which are the base stuff of the whole Web, and critical to the future of networked democracy and politics. |
| | This is also hugely off-base: |
| | The bloggers have a lot of work to do to catch up with or surpass Limbaugh¹s excellence in broadcasting and political communications. |
| | Talk about a false contest. Rush performs on commercial radio. Bloggers write journals. Sure, both are personal, but the differences are huge. Hill isn't comparing apples and oranges here. It's more like mountains and buildings. |
| | What Hill needs to grok is that blogs have changed the ecology of journalism, and the political ecosystem along with it. Rush lives in that ecosystem, and would be far wiser to take advantage of it than to fight it. AND logic, dude. Not OR. |
| | Sure, lefty bloggers built the political bandwagon on which Howard Dean currently rides high; but that doesn't mean a righty blogger wagon isn't available for candidates on the other political wing. The warblogger wagon is already doing the job, frankly, and has been for some time. |
| | Use AND logic and you'll see an enormous opportunity for complementary networking between right wing blogging and right wing talk radio — much more opportunity than there is on the left, for the simple reason that left wing talk radio is pretty much an oxymoron. |
| | Add RSS to Rush — and to all the new bloggers he can recruit among his 15 million listeners (a nice business opportunity there) — and his already huge power will multiply overnight. |
Thumbs out
| | Looking for a ride after LinuxWorld today. Destination: Palo Alto. I'd normally take the train, but I've got four bags and would rather hitch, if it works out. |
| | [Later...] Got one at the last minute. Nice. |
We're all in this thing
There are responses to this message:
Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog
|
