Is the era of the political blogger about over?

Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson

I woke up Sunday morning humming an old coal mining song called Sixteen Tons written by Merle Travis and coverd by Johnny Cash, Tennessee Ernie Ford (video below) and others.

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bone
With a mind that’s weak and a back that’s strong.

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper and debt
St Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store.

You’ve gotta listen to your muse if you are going to be an honest literary journalist, or to coin another phrase, an artistic blogger. That is not the same thing as a political blogger.

Now that the formerly great national newspaper of record for the 20th century, the New York Times, has declared 2008 the year of the political blogger, you can be sure the era is almost over. The Washington Post did a story last month asking the implied question: What will the liberal bloggers do when they declare victory and Obama wins in November?

That’s the equivalent of the end of the reign of talk radio, when people asked in 2000 what would happen to Rush Limbaugh when George W. Bush got himself appointed as president by the Supreme Court.

Limbaugh was the hottest thing on the airwaves as long as Bill “Slick Willy” Clinton was in the White House. But it’s crystal clear now that while Limbaugh is still on the radio, his impact has waned significantly, to the point where the conservative redneck crowd on the Paul Finebaum show in Alabama are always saying they don’t even bother to listen to “that blow hard” anymore.

Since we have already shown that chances are, Obama-Biden will take over the White House in January, what will happen to the Daily Kos and blogs such as LeftInAlabama?

They will be important to watch for their convention coverage and election coverage through November 4. But what happens after that?

I talked about this in a recent conversation with Davis Whiteside, one of the founding members of Black Warrior Riverkeeper environmental group, which is still so afraid of the Bush IRS, Alabama Power and the Birmingham Noose that they hide their link to this Website, inspired by the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River.

What I told Whiteside was this: I know what I will be doing. I plan to go camping and getting more into some nature photography and get back into serious literary science writing, since in the post-Bush era, science and the environment will become important again.

This is also sometimes referred to as creative non-fiction and there is an entire sub genre on science and nature.

And of course, we know that people will always search out people who can tell stories, since the narrative is basic to how humans communicate. The era of print may be over, but let’s hope the era of the story is not. If all journalism and blogging is reduced to politics, public relations and sound bites, we may be doomed as a species.

But for now, let the era of political blogging continue — so we can finish off this victory in turning the American ship of state around.

Maybe it will help to keep this song in mind. I suspect a lot of Americans are tired of feeling like they are getting another day older and deeper in debt. Surely they are tired of selling their soul to the corporate giant company store.

Here’s a version by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. He wasn’t destined to be president. And he’s not much of a singer either. But I think he had his finger on the heartbeat of America.

Here’s a version of the song by old Tennessee Ernie Ford.

What do you think?

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Tags: Company Store, Deeper in Debt, Political Blogs, Science Writing as Literature, Sixteen Tons

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Under the Microscope III. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.