Some Bloggers Are Better Than Others

The people who get paid to write political analysis are supposed to have a decent grasp on what is going on. That is not always the case. There were debate analysis written before the debate, and writers who didn't know where the debate was held. There are the inevitable writers who believe they know everything about what should have happened, and the candidates and their campaign staff are completely wrong. I wish I had a dollar for every article entitled "_________ Blasts _________ On _________."

I suppose I should be glad that there are so many mediocre professional writers out there. They make amateurs like me look good at times. I'm not glad, though. They get paid because they enjoy politics, and not just Washington politics. They play office politics. They schmooze it up with their coworkers and bosses, kiss the appropriate asses and snub the token community pariah of the hour. They keep collecting their paychecks because they are "part of the team" or "one of us" or "veteran writers." After a certain point their work is no longer judged on its merits, but on how well the author plays the office game.

I have no doubt that many of the writers I am about to mention have performed brilliantly in the past, and deserve to continue getting paid providing they turn in better work than the average Joe Internet blogger. The problem is that many of these professional writers are only going through the motions and really couldn't give a shit about the articles they turn in. And I'm not talking about their ideals. Everybody becomes disillusioned about their ideals eventually. I mean they no longer care about their writing. To me that is a cardinal sin. I have been writing as an adult for 22 years, and I wrote another eight years before that as a minor. I still care about what I write. I still want it to be good, meaningful, and substantial... even if the whole world hates what they read.

Here's a list of some writers who seem to have lost their way:
Alvin S. Felzenberg: The article was autoposted by a timer. Nobody at National REeview has even looked at it yet. It still bears a huge formatting error. It amounted to literary fellatio of John McCain, written by somebody who was very inebriated. He probably collects enough money from NRO to pay a mortgage note. If they are stupid enough to pay him, then they deserve the ridicule his work brings with him.

Oliver Willis: Dude, the debate was in Oxford, Mississippi. I know it was a Friday night, but he could pretend he had some knowledge about the event. He wrote his analysis based on other people's analyses, obviously. Surely he used Cliff's Notes in college. In Willis' defense, often he does better than that, except when he doesn't.

Raymond Leon Roker: Here's an idea for Mr. Roker. Next presidential election he should get himself nominated to be president. Then he can go all thug and beat down his opponent with whirlwind rhetocial combos, and then finish them off with a Malcolm X quote. From there it's just a hop skip and ajump to the White House, because there's nothing the white majority in this nation wants more than somebody channeling the energy of a Neo Black Panther movement. Great thinking!

Bill Kristol: He makes six figures for being a neoconservative propagandist. There's a very real chance he doesn't personally believe the nonsense he vomits onto the written page. There's no shame in making money for writing fiction, however. A problem only rises when somebody writes fiction and tries to pass it off as the truth. In the particular instance cited, William the Bloody (after his driver dropped him off at 620 8th Avenue) devoted an entire New York Times to a claim that was entirely unfounded, did not pan out in any way, and apparently originated in the sweat underneath his shrivelled cojones. Nice work, if you can kiss enough ass to get it.

Jerome Corsi: That's not just fiction he wrote about Obama. It's a sci-fi fantasy swachbuckler romance novel based on an advertisement in the National Enquirer. It's a best seller, part of the wingnut author charity program designed to help the hacks who churn out the utter garbage the right wing thrives on.

Ron Fournier: I have a headline for Ron Fournier. "AP Pick of Fournier Shows Depth of Corruption."

Hell, I could go on all night. To all the authors I cited, stay classy! Oh, and if Mr. Roker finds out about this... well,man, I'm sure there's something I've written that sucks too. I'm just a guy with a keyboard and a modem.