BLOG Envy
August 13, 2003
by Bernard Chapin
Art
may or may not imitate life, but the one thing that we can be sure
of is that Maureen Dowd is imitating or intimating The Chapin Nation. At my blog
on Monday I pasted in a copy of the invitation I personally sent her
to take part in our noble venture. The email was actually issued
last Friday. Here it is in its entirety:
Maureen,
It's Bernard Chapin, listen I'll get right to the heart of
the matter. Do you want to join our blog? I'll send access
information if you do. Steve-o, Gus, and your humble emailer, would
be flattered to have you aboard. You have my personal oath that
I will not delete one thing you write, even if it's inflammatory or
nasty towards the sponsors. You have my word. If any of your
co-workers would like to join, they're welcome too. Join us, here’s
the link: http://chapination.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Bern
There are two important things to remember here. The first is that I was telling the truth; whatever Miss Dowd sent would have been published. I would not have pulled a New York Times and tried to censor her. Even if she just wrote about what bastards we were it would have been entertainment for someone, so I would not have deleted her submission. Second, I fully expected never to hear back from her.
Yet, in a way we received an answer today. I cannot help but feel that the rage or minor annoyance she has experienced in regards to men in general, and to mensnewsdaily.com in particular, were a major inspiration behind today’s column, “Blah, Blah, Blog.”
She asks the same question that many leftists have fantasized about since the middle nineties: “Is the Internet over?” Sadly, for them, it is not and will likely never be. Never has such a medium so easily disseminated news and opinion, and truthful dissemination of fact is antithetical to the existence of the liberal (leftist) media establishment.
To be fair though, the column mainly discusses the Democratic Party hopefuls and their new affinity with blogging and the internet.
She does offer one semi-slam to the blogosphere though. Perhaps this was a way to let off some hormonal angst that Dowd has accumulated from being incessantly ridiculed online. Maureen states that Gary Hart is “a man with a future in blogging” because he doesn’t bother to read anything by anybody else. Well, we know this to be false as most blogs are fruitfully annotated with links from other authors and sources.
In summation, it’s hard to know our influence on Dowd because Hera will not come down from the clouds to speak to us anymore (gee, I wonder why!), but my impression is that the little nipping dogs of the internet are starting to get to her Bulgari-baguetted, unconscious.
Bernard Chapin is a writer in Chicago.
