Mark in Mexico responds to Kathleen Parker

Ms. Parker has written a scathing attack on the Blogosphere and bloggers such as, ahem, yours truly. Mark in Mexico takes this opportunity to retort. Ms. Parker charges that blogs are:

. . . less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility - the angry offspring of narcissism's quickie marriage to instant gratification.

Not guilty. Mark in Mexico remains a very visible and risible insidious enemy of decency, humanity and civility. And I am not angry, goddammit!.

There's something frankly creepy about the explosion we now call the Blogosphere - the big-bang "electroniverse" where recently wired squatters set up new camps each day.

I think there's something slightly creepy about any big-time journalist who is so frightened by widdle ol' me, frankly.

I'm also wary of power untempered by restraint and accountability.

Guilty. That's me; A sense of power emanating from deep inside my precious bodily fluids, totally unrestrained and accountable to no one except God and Instapundit.

Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow.

Hell, I'd do what I was doing before. Go fishin'. It's all the same to me.

Some bloggers also offer superb commentary, but most babble, buzz and blurt like caffeinated adolescents competing for the Ritalin generation's inevitable senior superlative: Most Obsessive-Compulsive.

Guilty as to the first count. Not guilty as to the second, third and fourth counts. You can always rely on Mark in Mexico for superlative commentary, or whatever. And certainly no obsessive-compulsive behavior, except for the occasional overuse, of, commas,.

Spoiled and undisciplined, they have grabbed the mike and seized the stage, a privilege granted not by years in the trenches, but by virtue of a three-pronged plug and the miracle of WiFi.

What's WiFi?

They play tag team with hyperlinks ("I'll say you're important if you'll say I'm important) and shriek "Gotcha!" when they catch some weary wage earner in a mistake or oversight.

Gotcha! I don't ever do that. And Mark in Mexico shows no mercy to weary wage earners who call terrorists, "insurgents" or attempt to pawn off easily identified forgeries as the real thing to support their political bent. What's the frequncy, Kenneth?

Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.

Not guilty! I was a Boy Scout, Order of the Arrow and everything. It's where I smoked my first cigarette, heard my first dirty joke and learned to masturbate. How's that for a civilizing structure? And, sheesh! Murderous barbarians? She must be talking about Steven "Bad Boy" Bainbridge, Eugene "The Vicious" Volokh, Daniel "The Deadly" Drezner and their ilk, certainly not about Mark "The Meek" in Mexico.

Likewise, many bloggers seek the destruction of others for their own self-aggrandizement.

Wrong, again. I seek the destruction of others in order to scatter my enemy and drive him before me. To see his cities reduced to ashes. To see those who love him shrouded and in tears. And to gather to my bosom his wives and daughters.

When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Golding's children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.

I've never contemplated hoisting the fly-covered head of a butchered sow on a bloody stick. Dan Rather's head, however, would do quite nicely.

Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim.

Not guilty! I remain ever civil and humane. Wow, this Kathleen Parker is a real Mongoloid Neanderthal post-menopausal bitch, isn't she?

I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there - professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and other journalists who also happen to blog. Again, they know who they are. But we should beware and resist the rest of the ego-gratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.

Well, she may have me there. I am neither a professor, lawyer, doctor, philosopher, scientist or other journalist. So, in Kathleen Parker's mind, such as it functions, if a blogger is not one of the aforementioned "professionals", one should not be granted a voice. And, if one insists on that right of free speech which Ms. Parker so cavalierly tosses into the trash heap here, one is rabble and should be resisted. Hey, Kathy, resist this!

Some other angry offspring of narcissism's quickie marriage to instant gratification add their babble, buzz and blurts.
Middle Earth Journal
Daily Pundit
Paul Mitchell over at Thoughts of a Regular Guy has espablished a discourse with Ms. Parker. I don't think you'll like her answers.
Mr. Minority calls this one of the Opinions of the Day
La Shawn Barber says she's sure that she has written a really good post, now and then.
The Captain says, on a related subject, "When they're good, they're very, very good ... but when they're bad, they're horrid."
Irish Wake says, "And if the media's job is to objectively report the news, while keeping an eye on both government and businesses, who's job is it to keep an eye on the mainstream media? It's the bloggers."

Orthodixie has a photo of Ms. Parker


TAGS: Kathleen Parker, Townhall, blogs, bloggers, Blogosphere