News & Political Blogs

There is a difference between news and political blogs. I post links to some articles that are usually what I suppose we'd call "news;" that is, they have supposedly factual info, like statistics and such, and rather than my just repeating these things in my blog, I prefer that you have the ability to go right to the author's article and read the whole thing in context.

Blogs have changed much in the discourse on politics, since anyone can start a blog, and therefore, any and all points of view can have an advocate. The Internet has opened a whole new world of information to us, but on the downside, it has also opened us up to a great deal of misinformation. I'll split hairs here and say, there's a difference between misstating something by error, and misstating something with deliberate intent to smear someone.

Many of the popular blogs are written by professional media people, like columnists, and they certainly have many more resources at their disposal to gather info. My own political blogs, which is what I usually do, are generally a mixture of facts and opinion. When I'm not sure of particular facts, I usually write "to my recollection," or "as far as I know," or some such disclaimer.

Having said all of this, I just wonder why Sarah Palin, in one of her recent interviews, said that her record (presumably as governor) was distorted and it wouldn't have taken much to correct the record. Hmm, there are all sorts of venues to get your point of view across. As usual, Sarah didn't say exactly what it was she wanted to have corrected. From what I saw and heard, the interviewer missed the boat, as the next question should have been, "For instance, what is it that you feel was said against your record that you want to correct?" This was THE perfect place for Sarah Palin to tell us what she wants us to know, but she didn't do it. Maybe she needs a blog.