Open Wide and Say "Blog"

Boring Made Dull wrote pretty much the post I planned, contrasting the community-based blogs in the Plain Dealer and the Akron Beacon Journal. It's not often I point to Boring and say "What he said," but what he said.

So far the PD's experiment -- putting four experienced bloggers with divergent politics on one blog -- appears to be working as a blog. It helps that they selected so well. Jill Zimon and Jeff Coryell have long been among my favorite people in the blogosphere and Tom Blumer and Dave from NixGuy are among the best on the right side of the 'sphere. The four not only write well, but they know how to write a forceful argument without lapsing into the nastiness that is rendering much of the sphere so toxic.

Some purists on either the journalism or blogging side may object to the mash up, but I think it's a good thing. First off, I'm all about bloggers getting paid. (I'm especially about this blogger getting paid, but we aren't there yet.) Second, the MSM platform will introduce more people to these four who are important voices.

With all that, I'm disappointed in the comment traffic so far. Aside from the four bloggers, the commenters lean decidedly to the right. So far Jill and Jeff's readers haven't followed them into the great Wide Open. You have to sign up -- no anonymice. For myself, I have to dig up my password, but I'll be there. Let's get some lefty voices in the fray and back up our folks.