Archive - 2004
August 31st
Why blogs are so important
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 08/31/2004 - 11:05(Originally published in Greater Democracy)
When bloggers descended upon the Democratic Convention, the bloggers were a big part of the news story. Everyone questioned how journalistic bloggers would be, and in the end, the mainstream press seemed to dismiss the bloggers. They didn’t break any important news stories. David Weinberger even questioned a Pulitzer Prize winner how we could adjust for his biases if he wouldn’t even admit to them. The mainstream media particularly rankled at such questions.
Yet all of this greatly over simplifies the process. Everyone does have a bias and it comes through in their writing. An import aspect of blogs are their immediacy. By this, I don’t necessarily mean how quickly things get written. Sometimes bloggers have difficulty getting to a good WiFi hotspot to put up their posts. Sometimes, they spend a bit of time trying to recuperate from their experiences before they can put their post together. However, they have a greater sense of immediacy in the more traditional sense of the word. They are less mediated by editorial boards or efforts to make a very emotional experience falsely seem objective.
August 30th
Random Convention News
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/30/2004 - 21:43(Originally posted in Greater Democracy)
This afternoon, I explored the city, trying to get a good feel for what is going on with the convention. I stopped in Bryant Park to use the open wifi, and check my email. There was an interesting email from Jock asking to what extent New York is currently Baghdad on the Hudson, “a city occupied by a power elite who treat the residents as second class citizens with fungible civil rights. The way the occupiers have redefined NYC, it now has its own very own "Green Zone" -- just like Bagdad. A bubble of fantasy and dogma dictated "reality".”
There was something that resonated with me about that. Just like the Two Americas, it seems as if there are two New Yorks, one in which people try to go about their daily lives and the other that the Republicans are visiting.
When I was in Boston, I went and hung out in the lobbies of various delegations. It was a great way to get a sense of what was really going on. The delegates and dignitaries would pass through the lobbies. You could pick up information about what is going out through out the day.
Here in New York, it is different. You can’t get into the lobbies unless you are staying in the hotel. The delegates are pretty removed and isolated from New York. It is easy to get information about demonstrations, but not about what is going on for the delegates.
NYPD Critical Mass
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/30/2004 - 21:05
A new millennium of emperor’s new clothes.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/30/2004 - 09:57(Originally published in Greater Democracy)
I’ve often wondered how the young boy in the story of the emperor’s new clothes got away with saying that the emperor had no clothes.
Today, the Fashion Network News, which would have been talking so effusively about the emperor’s new clothes, surely would have discredited the young boy. There probably would have been a congressional hearing in which the young boy would have been asked if he was now, or very had been, a member of the communist party. He might have been detained as a suspected terrorist or enemy combatant. If also else failed, he would have been limited to expressing his opinion in a freespeech zone.
On the other hand, maybe he would have started a blog.
7 O’clock news/Silent Night
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/30/2004 - 09:51(Originally published in Greater Democracy)
“I’m sitting in the railway station, gotta ticket for my destination…”
For some reason, Simon and Garfunkel is going through my mind.
“Each town looks the same to me in shades of mediocrity …”
Today, I covered the first day of the Republican National Convention. There was a big protest and I know my way around New York a little better than I know my way around Boston, but other than that they were pretty similar.
“.. reminds me that I long to be, homeward bound… “
The protest was a lot of fun for me and I imagine a lot of other people, but I cannot help but wonder if my day would have been better spent door-knocking with Kim, or maybe going swimming with Kim and Fiona.
As I walked to the train station, I saw the full moon hanging over Time Square.
