There's an interesting discussion going on at popular, national blog BOPNews about whether or not Daily Kos has "jumped the shark" in light of the Alito nomination battle and, ultimately, confirmation. More broadly, Stirling Newberry asks, have we "reached a plateau of this wave of blogging" in which "screaming has drowned out everything else?" Is it true that "The left blogsphere has a big problem - it is getting dummer" (sic - I presume Mr. Newberry misspelled this on purpose)? And is it true that:
Alito was definitely the point of conversion - nothing but all screaming all the time. Now here is the kicker, the kossacks could have had a place at the fillibuster table - but they wouldn't take it. They had a chance for a meeting early, but they didn't take it. In short, they aren't marginalized because they are being kept out, they are marginalized because they are too busy screaming at each other to get anything done.
Too busy screaming? Hey, that never happens in the Virginia blogosphere, right? :) (actually, I think the Virginia blosophere is a relatively civil place)
Anyway, Newberrry - one of the smartest guys on the internet, and also one of the most pugnacious - concludes with the following warning:
...for the people who are screaming - the swarm - nirvana has been reached. There is now a screamsphere - where on any given day, any given screaming can win the screaming contest. The converse of fewer ideas, is more room for people who make noise.This means that unless a much larger drive to link to ideas is made by the front page, the liberal sphere is about to completely fragment - where screamers scream only at each other, and head for group think non solutions, and the core gets on the wonkavator, and starts grading itself by the pound.
For campaigns this is great - more screaming consumers looking for a hero. For the creation of a movement, this is a disaster.
Personally, I have always worried about the "echo chamber" effect of the blogs...attracting a self-selected sample of the most passionate people on each "side" of any particular issue, then reinforcing each other in an never-ending spiral upwards in intensity, and downwards in the quality of intellectual reasoning. I also worry that, as each "side" does this, the polarization of American politics simply worsens, with little light and way too much heat being shed on any given topic. Does it have to be this way? So what do you all think?
P.S. Interestingly, Markos dropped BOPNews from his "blogroll" soon after Mr. Newberry posted his original article, "The Daily Kos has jumped the shark."