<![CDATA[Politics from Left to Right: Nashville Noted:
See, on the web, quality doesn’t cost more than junk. Getting up and running isn’t some sort of equipment or cost nightmare. Finding an audience, however, takes a bit of work.
Chris Nolan chimes in on David Weinberger’s quitting his commentator gig at MSNBC. The discussion over at David’s blog is interesting for its almost universal condemnation of the MSM, but there’s no talk about the coup de gràce that an alternative media might apply to the bad old media. When the quiet discourse that Chris describes happening in post-Crossfire political discussions on the Web takes audience away—in the sense that it attracts a large audience on a regular basis that is measurable—then the media will actually follow the public and deliver a reasoned debate instead of screaming matches.]]>
One reply on “Nicely put….”
The thing I find most fascinating about Chris’s post is that it doesn’t really match what I saw at Blog Nashville, particularly in the close-to-legendary Dave Winer-led panel on respectful disagreement.
Despite the post-conference spin by Dave and others, it was a textbook example of why online discourse isn’t inherently any more or less respectful than conversations in “real” life.
What struck me about that panel was that after talking to people after it was over, I realized that most of the bloggers who regularly discuss politics weren’t interested in “respectful” discourse. There was an astounding amount of anger from both sides, which both amused and saddened me.
My big takeaway from the session was that Dave Winer is just as colorful as word of mouth had led me to expect.