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07/03/2005: "Doonesbury Celebrates Barriers to Entry!"

Garry Trudeau is apparently worried about losing mindshare to bloggers, if today’s Doonesbury is any indication. He characterizes bloggers as cat food eaters (huh?) who are “angry, semi-employed losers who are too untalented or too lazy to get real jobs in journalism.” Like all of the entrenched interests throughout history who have taken swipes at upstarts, he’s probably thinking his paycheck will take a hit if the new channel for opinion and entertainment that is blogging should gain too much popularity. I have a somewhat different take on this issue, as you might imagine. Up until now the only sources for opinions on politics were from politicians, journalists, and comedians. Of these three professions, the most credible - judged by book sales and media visibility - are apparently the comedians! For example, the two best-selling political books over the last year were by Jon Stewart and Al Franken. In addition, Jon Stewart was named as one of Time’s 100 most influential people, and Al Franken has become a fixture on news programs. And Doonesbury, as a comic feature, is clearly more rooted in the “comedy” camp than the “journalism” camp. So how well does being a comedian qualify one to be a credible source on politics in comparison to having some other background, say mine? The issue is how a blogger kind of person’s random experience (with me representing our glorious ilk) compares to the comedian kind of random experience. Let’s look at some of the issues in the news: war, cooked intelligence, and retirement planning (AKA social security). What is my background with each of these? I was an Army Captain during wartime. I was a company commander of a combat engineer Army outfit. I worked for America’s most powerful intelligence organization. I’ve overseen the development of large retirement programs in corporate and government settings. I thus have something of substance to say on these topics. And by contrast, how is a comedian (a cartoonist, for example?) specially qualified to speak to these issues? Well...? Maybe because he has more time to read the papers? Heretofore, the only way for me to add to the national dialogue was to run for office or work my way up through the stand-up ranks. Or, as Trudeau suggests, working my way up as a reporter by covering “Salsa Night in Flemington,” an article in today’s local paper. These are the only ways to be paid for one’s opinion, Trudeau’s indispensable test of credibility. I find none of these jobs particularly appealing or relevant in comparison to the career I’ve actually had. But thanks to the miracle of TCP/IP and the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) I have the opportunity to express an informed opinion even if it doesn’t, for the first time in history, enrich the coffers of a media mogul. Maybe the web really does change everything!