In today’s Orlando Sentinel, right-wing columnist Kathleen Parker provides a clear headed assessment of the blogosphere:
Each time I wander into blogdom, I’m reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.
…When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Golding’s children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.
…Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim.
…We can’t silence them, but for civilization’s sake – and the integrity of information by which we all live or die – we can and should ignore them.
That’s right. Ignore bloggers and pay attention to Kathleen Parker. For example, here’s a choice paragraph from her October 5 column:
The N-word makes me cringe . . . especially every time I hear Kanye West say it. His spicy songs, including his current hit, “Gold Digger,” are liberally seasoned with the word “nigga,” often couched in violence and obscenity. But when I imagine the immaculate and proper Condi Rice saying it…it makes me laugh.
That, my friends, is what it means to write with integrity. Us bloggers would be well served spending less time hoisting severed heads on bloody sticks and more time reading Kathleen Parker.
