Can One Breathe in the Blog-o-Sphere?

Here I am at work enjoying one of my favorite pastimes, the New York Times, linked without permission on the sidebar. There is an ongoing program over there called "Ask the Editors" in which various editors address question leveled to them by NYT readers. I've read two of them thus far, Assistant Managing Editor Gerald Marzorati and Bill Keller, executive editor. They are an interesting mix of a letters page and an interview, and have provided me with some food for thought.

Marzorati and Keller both talk at length about the blog, and also the blog-o-sphere, one of the most exruciatingly awkward pieces of our modern vernacular. The blog, such as this one, is so fluid in its identity: it can run the gamut from pseudo-tabloid to pseudo-punditry to psuedo-journalism. For the time being, there is also a complete lack of editiorial advisement. What this leaves in the hands of the blogger is glorious freedom of expression; the reader must discern the veracity of a blogger independently. And when the reader finds an untruth, it is his duty to click the comment tab and let the blogger know what's what.

The digital polemic is fast becoming a greater part of the media. At best, it will institute a sort of citizen journalism, (an ideal described on the Debate and Discussion board of the Something Awful Forums). At worst, these digital polemics will only further clutter the newsworld with bias, misunderstanding, and incredulence. I think it will be somewhere in between, or even both. What the blog-o-sphere does do is create a greater arena of discoure and debate, which can only help our nation, and our world.