I hope I’m not stepping in it too badly here, but I think it’s time to remind some people that bloggers aren’t a race or a religion. For some it may be a way of life or a creed or some such. But that may be part of the problem. I think it started with the Pajama thing. Maybe I took offense for that remark for different reasons than others did. I thought it was bad because it was a way of arrogantly deflecting the problems at CBS by attacking the accusers who had the facts on their side. But it increasingly seems that bloggers, as a group, don’t like criticism period. This is a gross generalization about a sentiment more than absolute declaration of fact. But I get more and more email from bloggers — or devout blog readers — in which the correspondents make it sounds as if criticizing the medium is entirely illegitimate and almost immoral.

Consider two posts from over the weekend. The first is about the already-noted Bill Keller anti-blog comments. Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times said:

Keller also sees “blogging,” or online writing that blurs news and commentary, as a mixed blessing. While he celebrated the blogger’s ability to uncover breaking news, he noted that a blog’s inherent bias might be detrimental to the reader. “A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” he said, noting that it can sometimes fall as low as being a “one man circle jerk.”
“There is a pressure to feel well informed without ever confronting an opinion that confronts your prejudices,” he said of blog readers.

To which the excellent blogger (and political scientist) Dan Drezner responded “Wow, sounds like this Keller guy is a bit of an anti-blog jerk.”

Or consider this odd story about John Fund allegedly using bloggers’ laptops at C-Pac without permission. I don’t completely understand or care what the details were. But it seems that Fund just sat down at someone’s unused computer and started tapping away.

Here’s how Kevin McCullogh — another fine blogger and radio host — responded:

What this is – is a total and complete disrespect for the medium of blogging. It is the actions of the self-superior “big media” journalists (be they on our side even) steam rolling over the pajamaboys and pajamagirls and not caring one ounce about the end result.

Uh…maybe. Maybe this doesn’t say very much about Fund’s respect for bloggers and says more about his respect for property. I don’t know what was in John’s mind, but is it really so inconceivable that he might have done the same thing with a print reporter’s laptop too? I mean, I personally could imagine Fund — or a lot of other people — borrowing someone’s idle computer at a big press-area, like at the political conventions. If he used a print reporters computer would we assume that he was showing complete disrespect for the printed word?

Similarly, Keller may or may not be a jerk (though he is a widely liked guy). He certainly sounds more than a bit smug in his comments. But Drezner seems to be suggesting that being anti-blog can ipso facto make you a jerk. I think TV news is inherently inferior to written news — be it online or off — and I’ve said so many times. But I don’t know many TV producers or reporters who would consider me a jerk simply for those views.

Blogging is a medium not a caste. I think it’s a very exciting and important one. But if bloggers want to be taken more seriously they might want to become a little bit less defensive. Maybe I just don’t get it, but there’s something about all of this which reminds of the Seinfeld where everybody calls Jerry an anti-Dentite because he doesn’t like dentists.

Update above.