Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Of strikes and rewrites
One of the products of the blogging culture is hyper-realistic journalism. For those who can keep up, blogs have converted the art of reporting and commenting on news. The whole phenomenon has been well studied by James Lileks; I'll provide links if anyone is interested.
One of the conventions that bespeaks honesty in a blogger is his or her use of the strike tag in html (demonstrated in the title). Rather than editing or deleting an inaccurate or outdated piece of information, the old words are struck out, remaining readable, and the update is furnished with the honest admission that it is an update. It's an improvement from the "corrections" blurb that newspapers print, buried somewhere within, isn't it? Or the accuracies buried somewhere in Dan Rather's mind...
Not every blog is a news and current events report or a source of various punditry. This one is not, for example. I don't really know what this blog is, besides an occasionally sanity-preserving device and an attempt to keep in touch with friends back home (most of whom don't read it). Maybe it's just a combination sketchbook and journal.
Last week I wrote a heavy and heartfelt posting about American Jews who are pro-Israel but who for various reasons choose not to make aliyah. It was a reaction to a posting on another blog by someone who fit into that category. The author had described a couple of scenarios of many young, idealistic, educated, single Jewish adults who have made an attempt to live in Israel, but who ended up leaving. I was discouraged by the reasons given and by the outcome of the scenarios, although I know them to be realistic. I displayed my biases and wrote a sad critique of the mentality described by the author.
And then the author withdrew his posting. Changed his mind. Wasn't satisfied with the flow and outcome of his posting. It happens.
I chose to withdraw mine. No point in arguing with an interlocutor who has already left. I realise that was not the hyper-realistic way to deal with the situation, but there are higher values to take into consideration.
The topic will come up again, I'm sure, and I'd love to deal with it again. For those who want to talk about it, please drop me a line with your thoughts.
One of the conventions that bespeaks honesty in a blogger is his or her use of the strike tag in html (demonstrated in the title). Rather than editing or deleting an inaccurate or outdated piece of information, the old words are struck out, remaining readable, and the update is furnished with the honest admission that it is an update. It's an improvement from the "corrections" blurb that newspapers print, buried somewhere within, isn't it? Or the accuracies buried somewhere in Dan Rather's mind...
Not every blog is a news and current events report or a source of various punditry. This one is not, for example. I don't really know what this blog is, besides an occasionally sanity-preserving device and an attempt to keep in touch with friends back home (most of whom don't read it). Maybe it's just a combination sketchbook and journal.
Last week I wrote a heavy and heartfelt posting about American Jews who are pro-Israel but who for various reasons choose not to make aliyah. It was a reaction to a posting on another blog by someone who fit into that category. The author had described a couple of scenarios of many young, idealistic, educated, single Jewish adults who have made an attempt to live in Israel, but who ended up leaving. I was discouraged by the reasons given and by the outcome of the scenarios, although I know them to be realistic. I displayed my biases and wrote a sad critique of the mentality described by the author.
And then the author withdrew his posting. Changed his mind. Wasn't satisfied with the flow and outcome of his posting. It happens.
I chose to withdraw mine. No point in arguing with an interlocutor who has already left. I realise that was not the hyper-realistic way to deal with the situation, but there are higher values to take into consideration.
The topic will come up again, I'm sure, and I'd love to deal with it again. For those who want to talk about it, please drop me a line with your thoughts.
