But I only linked to it! That doesn’t mean I endorsed it!
In a Glenn Greenwald post today, as a side note Glenn pointed out that Instapundit had promoted the piece of propaganda that Greenwald was currently debunking. Bloggers were quick to come to Instapundit’s defense saying “But he only linked to it, that doesn’t mean he endorsed it,” to which Instapundit quickly agreed.
I don’t normally become involved in these blogger wars except as an observer, but this gave me the opportunity to talk about something I’ve been thinking about for months: Bloggers who have somehow become famous despite the fact that they only provide one-liners that merely link to something and nothing else. Though there’s several bloggers like this, the ones that I take issue with the most are Atrios and Instapundit.
When a high-profile blogger links to something and he doesn’t have anything critical to say before or after his link, he’s essentially promoting it, or rather, he’s sending thousands of readers towards the post, who will be influenced by whatever opinion the poster has made.
You would think this would teach Reynolds a lesson: Take the five seconds to actually comment on links he gives out. I take issue with this for two reasons:
1. It allows him to promote propaganda and then run away from it when it blows up in his face, like in this case. He can always just say “Hey, I was merely linking to it!”
2. Glenn Reynolds is obviously making a lot of money off his blog. It’s read by a lot of people. Can’t he take a few extra minutes to simply write something about what he links to. Not only because of reasons listed above, but also a lot more people would actually *click* on his links if they knew where it was taking them. I read a lot of blogs, and if I took the time to click on every freakin’ link that a blogger gives out, I would probably only be able to read five blog posts a day.
This is why I don’t have much respect for blogs like Atrios and Instapundit, who have posts that consist of the words “Wanker of the day” with a link and nothing else. They’re essentially one of the few lucky bloggers who made it to the top while virtually having to do nothing but skim through blog posts all day and link to them.
Glenn Greenwald is, by far, the best political blogger on the internet, hands down. His posts are not only meaty, but have real substance, and he doesn’t take cheap shots and label people “morons” or “moonbats” like Kos or Michele Malkin.
So whenever Instapundit does link to some conservative nutball, Greenwald has every right to call him out on it, and should continue to do so.
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Thank you for articulating something I have thought about for years. I remember first learning about Instapundit several years ago, and then how quickly I was first disillusioned and then flabbergasted by the outrageous, completely nutty things he would link to. I even went to the trouble of emailing him a couple of times to call him on this behavious, but only got snide, flippant remarks in reply. He knows very well what he is up to, and he doesn’t care.
Yeah, Instapundit has been trying to keep this “Aww, shucks, why is everyone being so mean to me” attitude for a long time. But it doesn’t hold much water when he links to super conservative nutballs who are obviously dispensing right-wing propaganda. Early on, when I first learned about him, I remember following one of his links to a blogger who argued that the reason that students in the US had such low math scores was that the teachers were too insistent on teaching diversity. The post was insanely stupid, and the fact that Glenn had linked to it at all took away any credibility he might have had.
I’m in the same boat. I don’t read a lot of blogs, but I like to try to read some on both sides of the political spectrum. For awhile, I thought Instapundit was basically the only conservative blog that wasn’t an example of calloussness or serious mental illness. However, once I started to notice more and more links to deranged people with reprehensible views, and quickly got tired of his “I never said anywhere I agree with them completely” excuses. I emailed Kevin Drum shortly after this to find out which, if any, conservative political blogs were more than the digital equivalent of a leaflet you might find on the bus, and he basically said “none.” I read NRO’s blog now. Seriously, it shouldn’t be hard to find a conservative blog that is updated often and not insane, but the internet continues to fail me.
I agree wholeheartedly. When a blogger links to something, they are pointing it out for their readership’s attention. If they do so without context, there is an assumed positivity; the blogger must consider it useful, entertaining, or informative in some way if they’re sharing it with their cherished readers. They are ascribing it value by default, an act otherwise known as endorsement. If they wish to deem it negative, they have to clarify that in the post. That is, of course, unless the subject of their blog is, “Links to things I hate,” which is not the case here.
Instapundit is obviously a seasoned blogger, so these unspoken expectations should be well-known to him by now. He should have known better.
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