The dirty little secret I uncovered at Blognashville is that Glenn Reynolds is actually a very nice guy. Smart, too. (Not truly handsome like I am but OK for a hair-head.)
Reynolds, who teaches law at UT Knoxville and apparently enjoys it, also plays a right-wing crank on his Instapundit site. He does this part-time and, in part thanks to first-mover advantage, he dominates the right half of the political blogosphere, with over 15,000 incomng links at last count. (This blog, by contrast, has 262.)
Reading Reynolds, and those who admire him, one gets a completely false impression of the man.
In Nashville I found an erudite, intelligent, and amused gentleman of the old school, always in a suit and tie, never seeming to sweat, with a genuine smile that looked nothing like the MegaChurch preacher readers might expect. The haircut looks like something out of a 1968 Young Republican Club, and the blog reads like that as well, but the mind and the man behind them are quite different.
There was some real wisdom in the man as well. Don't believe me? Following are some quotes lifted directly from my notebook during the event:
"Journalists when they talk to me want to know about the biggest, baddest and the best. That’s a mistake.
"The other thing journalists ask is what are your big hits. I want to echo Duncan Black who said big hits aren’t that important, it’s the bit by bit conversation that matters.
"Journalists, because they have a set way to do stories, look for the Babe Ruth in every field and that’s a big mistake.
"In big media we have terms like content providers and consumers. Most people don’t want to be either. They want to be producers, speakers, communicators. People want to share. People have an inborn desire to communicate, to share their feelings. The tribes that wanted to talk survived and became our ancestors.
"The top down media framework doesn’t respond to that. Most people want things to work both ways.
"Bloggers do some original reporting, and that’s what is going to change things.
"The criticism bloggers make of journalists is they make mistakes they could fix with five minutes on Google. The criticism journalists make of bloggers is they make mistakes they could correct talking to someone for five minutes."
"One of the big opportunities is to get a lot of smart people working for them for no pay. I would plug every article into Technorati, and see all the blogs seeing the article. I would look for mistakes, post corrections, and credit the blogger who found it first and link to them. People would work hard to correct mistakes and wouldn’t expect to be paid.
"The secret to success is getting people interested enough in what you’re doing to work for you for free."
"Everyone wants to be a pundit. I do some original reporting, I have correspondents and that’s journalism. I did something on the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It rocks. It must cause cancer to be that good. Consumer Reports is journalism.
(On bloggers being male, white, and middle-aged, like the crowd at BlogNashville.) "This is a perennial topic. It’s not true if you step out of political bloggers and tech bloggers. Livejournal is heavily female but it’s personal. There’s a huge substratum of gay blogs. If it’s true there are fewer women bloggers it’s a legacy of it starting with tech geeks who couldn’t get dates. It’s something that’s trailing away."
(On business models for blogs.) "Blogads works. I have an exercise guy advertise, he’s with several other places, and he does well. Andrew Sullivan has gotten people to give money. Beyond that there’s the co-branding model. Some people are making livings, and others are making nice supplementary inome, and I think we’re on the way up there. Other advertising is looking worse."
(On quitting his day job.) "It’s unlikely to happen. Had I become a partner at my old law firm, like one friend did, I’d be rich. His home improvements involve the Army Corps of Engineers. I quit that to be a law professor. It’s a great day job. But I do think some people will make a good living at it, it won’t be huge but more than now.
"I think a killer app is local news reporting. If one blogger covered the school board and interviewed everyone you’d be putting more hours in than all other local media put together, and do a better job.
"The opportunity for people who are obsessive to pick a story and ride it is just unbelieveabale. It’s already happening with Star Trek but that’s just the beginning."
(On old media) "The old media has the demographics of Matlock. They are boring and sensational at the same time, as in the runaway bride story."
Oh, Reynolds doesn't put on airs, either. Reynolds has plenty of time for every other blogger, even liberals.
Don't hate the playa.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Felix Deutsch on May 9, 2005 02:35 PM writes...
Instafuckwit said:
"The criticism bloggers make of journalists is they make mistakes they could fix with five minutes on Google. The criticism journalists make of bloggers is they make mistakes they could correct talking to someone for five minutes."
The criticism reality-based bloggers make of Instafuckwit is he peddles completely discredited rightwing smearjobs he could correct (or wouldn't run in the first place) if he had any intellectual honesty.
Plus, his trademark method of endorsing a (racist, ridiculous, completely false, whatever) story/posting by linking to it without much more of a comment than "Interesting", "Heh", "Indeed" or similar, which allows him to backtrack feigning ignorance ("I didn't say that I agreed!") in the few cases he can't ignore the heat he gets for it any longer. In the rest of the cases, there will be no correction at all.
Of course, powerline, Malkin and others may be worse, but not by much.
Also, I read that Heinrich Himmler was an amiable guy in person, so I don't give a fuck about his personal demeanor.
Permalink to Comment2. Me on May 11, 2005 09:25 PM writes...
Now that's elevated commentary! Quite witty, too!
Permalink to Comment3. mcg on May 11, 2005 09:28 PM writes...
Wow, it only took one post to get to a Nazi comparison! That's impressive!
Permalink to Comment4. Chuck Simmins on May 11, 2005 09:39 PM writes...
Glenn supported the liberation of Iraq. That hardly makes him a right winger. On many issues he is decidely middle of the road or slightly left. If you're looking for right wing bloggers, there are several that use the phrase "Right Wing" in their titles.
Call him, if you will, a September 11 Republican. His political writings are heavily influenced by the murders of 9/11 and the events that followed from that day. He is one of many who see that day as pivotal in our nation's history, but it doesn't define his blogging. It just shapes it.
Permalink to Comment5. Donald Sensing on May 11, 2005 09:40 PM writes...
Herewith Donald's Law of Obscene Language:
Use of profanity = brainless. The more profanity, especially the "f" word, the more brainless the writer.
Permalink to Comment6. Jim C. on May 11, 2005 09:41 PM writes...
Hmm, that line you quote in your ravings about Reynolds, "I didn't say that I agreed!" doesn't show up in a Google search of his site. What was it he said about 5 minutes on Google? As a morally superior and "reality-based" (ROFL!) leftist, you weren't thinking of backtracking feigning ignorance with something like "I didn't say it was *him* I was quoting!", were you?
"Instafuckwit": 1
Permalink to CommentFoaming-at-the-mouth fully-aware-his-side-is-losing just-as-clueless-as-MSM moonbat: 0
7. Mike on May 11, 2005 09:46 PM writes...
What I don't understand is why you are surprised. The man you describe is exactly the man I would expect from reading Instapundit.
Permalink to Comment8. zuzu on May 11, 2005 09:56 PM writes...
I have certainly never considered Glenn Reynolds "right wing" at all, but then again my opinion is based on the fact that I regularly read Instapundit. I don't know how a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage libertarian (who is far more inclined to write about nanotechnology and his favorite camera) could ever be compared to a "megachurch preacher".
Permalink to Comment9. joe on May 11, 2005 10:09 PM writes...
gun rights, and war on terror. that's it. those are the only two issues he is right of center on. some crank.
Permalink to Comment10. big dirigible on May 11, 2005 10:29 PM writes...
Moderate Glenn R may be, but I didn't realize he was such a windbag - all those aphorisms, from one event? Couldn't he restrain himself just a bit, and keep it down to something sensible, like "heh"?
Permalink to Comment11. biff on May 11, 2005 11:24 PM writes...
That "Felix Deutsch" rant was a parody, right?
Permalink to Comment12. tree hugging sister on May 11, 2005 11:28 PM writes...
I love it when he intones:
"Indeed."
Whew. Gotta do some Lamaze breathing.
Permalink to Comment13. Tim Shell on May 11, 2005 11:36 PM writes...
Mike writes...
"What I don't understand is why you are surprised."
It's called 'prejudice', Mike.
Permalink to Comment14. MalcolmHairston on May 11, 2005 11:37 PM writes...
Wow. Whodathunk.
Permalink to Comment15. HairHead on May 11, 2005 11:53 PM writes...
Dana (with no hair)writes:
Smart, too. (Not truly handsome like I am but OK for a hair-head.)
>
And then adds:
He does this part-time and, in part thanks to first-mover advantage, he dominates the right half of the political blogosphere, with over 15,000 incomng links at last count. (This blog, by contrast, has 262.)
First mover advantage? Dude, you say in your bio that you have been covering the "online world" since 1985 (what, back when you had hair?). Well, why didn't you get going on "online" commentary back then? If you did, then of course, you would be now the InstaBaldy with massive links and 10's of thousands of viewers, correct?
Only if you could provide the content that Glenn does. Content is King!!! Hair is optional. And photos? Most blogger photos are either faked, photoshopped, or very dated. Who cares what YOU look like, I care about what your OPINIONS look like. Content dude, CONTENT!
Permalink to Comment16. sulizano on May 12, 2005 12:08 AM writes...
Glen, cranky? Oh my, I can't agree with you. I've read Glen's site for several years, and while I've never met him, he has ALWAYS struck me as being a super-nice fella, somebody who's smart, but not in-your-face about it, and who laughs easily at himself.
Suli
Permalink to Comment17. MarkSC on May 12, 2005 12:18 AM writes...
Professor Reynolds is fairly centrist/ libertarian. He seems right wing only to those who have slipped off the left edge of reality.
Permalink to Comment18. SusieM on May 12, 2005 01:16 AM writes...
What? Almost 20 comments and no mention of:
puppy blending, hobo murdering, Satan worshiping,
or robot dancing.
Glen is pure EVIL, I tell you!
INSTAPUNDO DELENDA EST! ...
Permalink to Comment19. MTC on May 12, 2005 02:42 AM writes...
The great thing about about Glenn, without a doubt, is even though you know he is biased (no one isn't) you also know where he is coming from.
That, and the guy's a fucking machine.
Permalink to Comment20. Yehudit on May 12, 2005 05:17 AM writes...
"What I don't understand is why you are surprised. The man you describe is exactly the man I would expect from reading Instapundit."
Ditto. Looks like you have some unexamined biases, Dana.
I get this kind of crap all the time. I'm the same feminist liberal I was 10 years ago, but because I support the war in Iraq and voted for Bush last year for that reason, all of a sudden I'm a "conservative." I know conservatives (and respect and disagree with them on some issues), and I know I'm not one.
As long as liberals walk around with these unexamined biases they are not going to understand the political tectonic shift that is going on in this country. (And elsewhere, if Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Iraq, Georgia, etc. are any indication,)
Permalink to Comment21. Dana Blankenhorn on May 12, 2005 09:46 AM writes...
Question to all.
How'd you find a post so low on the queue when I have not seen a trackback to it? Are you all using Glenn as an RSS keyword?
Just asking. This is a technical question.
And as to his "first mover advantage," it's first to blogging, not first to coverage, I was referencing.
Thanks to all who have commented here.
Permalink to Comment22. Roger Abramson on May 12, 2005 10:16 AM writes...
Honestly, I think this says more about the prejudices of Mr. Blankenhorn than it does about Professor Reynolds. Spend ten minutes on his blog and anyone can tell that Reynolds is anything but a doctrinaire right-winger. He is "conservative" on many issues, but he's "liberal" on many others. He's generally libertarian. I mean, really now, could we get over being surprised that people who support the Iraq war and voted for Bush are "OK" people? Mr. Blankenhorn (and others like him) need to get out more. And, incidentally, maybe they could take this as a clue about how out of touch they are with average Americans, and--not so incidentally--why they have no one but themselves to blame for their politcal losing streak of late.
Permalink to Comment23. submandave on May 12, 2005 10:30 AM writes...
Can't speak for the others, but I got here via "the Man" himself (and I've long suspected he tracks his own name in RSS).
I have to agree with Yehudit. For my money this post tells me more about the author than about Glenn. That anyone could perceive a law professor who frequently writes of his support for stem-cell research, abortion rights, gay marriage and freedom of speech as a "right-wing crank" and expect him to be more like a "MegaChurch preacher" (which is expressed as being a contrast to "an erudite, intelligent, and amused gentleman of the old school") simply tells me how far to the left the observer is positioned.
Permalink to Comment24. madawaskan on May 12, 2005 10:41 AM writes...
I still think he's a Federalist/Libertarian. These are guys that are hothouse hybrids that have developed a specialized philosophy that allows them to be okay with not volunteering for the military,smoking pot and NOT paying taxes. They also have boxseats to the MET or San Fran Opera House.
I don't have anything against potsmokers but get off the dime and go join the Democrats and pay YOUR fair share of taxes-because YOU-HOTHOUSE FEDERALIST-LIBERTARIAN are costing US too much.
Heh.
I'm going to rip Rich Lowry halitosis cloud potsmoker cat-litter box owner a new one NEXT..
What a STINKER!
Permalink to Comment25. madawaskan on May 12, 2005 11:10 AM writes...
Ok I am already feeling guilty about that last toss-out but when you are-
Glenn Reynolds-Caliph of the Blogosphere the plebiscite WILL revolt...
Heh.Heh.
Permalink to Comment26. Waffle King on May 12, 2005 12:21 PM writes...
Not sure why you don't have a track-back, because Instapundit linked this post. Happy Instalanche!
I, too, find your "dirty little secret" amusing. I wonder just what you've read on Instapundit that gave you your false impression. Want a crank? Watch "House MD". Megachurch preacher? I suspect if you had dinner with a few you'd have similar impressions of them, but to compare Reynolds to one is pretty off-the-wall. Instapundit's value is that it challenges readers to clarify where they stand, makes them consider their definitions of Conservative and Liberal, and introduces the philosophy of Libertarianism to many who haven't been too aware of what that is.
I used to call myself a conservative. Now I'd say more a conservative-leaning Christian libertarian, if I was going to pigeon-hole myself. But maybe I'll leave the pigeon-holing to those who will read what I say through their own filters and then assign me a label reflecting their own prejudice.
Permalink to Comment27. mistercalm on May 12, 2005 04:11 PM writes...
"The criticism reality-based bloggers make of Instafuckwit is he peddles completely discredited rightwing smearjobs he could correct (or wouldn't run in the first place) if he had any intellectual honesty."
Yeah... invoking the "I'm liberal and therefore automatically intellectually superior to you" meme. Then the "Also, I read that Heinrich Himmler was an amiable guy in person, so I don't give a fuck about his personal demeanor." statement. Good gravy, this guy is flying down the ladder of debate stature! I needn't comment further on his attack of Glenn Reynolds: this guy has described himself and his want of mental horsepower in terms I could not improve upon.
Permalink to Comment28. George Tipps on May 16, 2005 09:48 PM writes...
Some might be critical of him for taking photos of non-blogging female staff at the BlogNashville Welcome Party and posting those pictures on his site without the person's permission.
Permalink to Comment