Why bloggers often suck, or Wonkette’s life story
I was tipped off to Wonkette’s abuse of Rep. David Wu (D-Washington) and to me, this was a perfect moment of blogging. A chick I wouldn’t have hired to write obits back in my newspaper days goes to great length to show how little she gets it by making fun of some relatively cogent comments by Wu on the house floor.
If you’ve missed the video which can be seen here, Wu talked about the "Vulcans" (the self-styled name of some of the let’s-invade-Iraq-for-fun-and-profit NeoCons in the White House, including the lovable Condi Rice). And suggested that instead these Neo-Cons are a bit more like Klingons, because they are so blood thirsty. Yeah, a bit of a stretch, granted, but considering how boring and pointless most house speeches are, give the guy credit for reaching out. Wonky can’t help herself but run off the "we’re too cool for school" type of riff that makes people love folks inside the beltway so much.
OK, a bit of good-natured ribbing might be in order, if only because Klingons, as portrayed in the Star Trek universe had honor after a fashion, which the Neo-Cons do not, and technically, those Vulcans weren’t the pointy-eared variety like Mr. Spock (although there has been some debate about that, as a number of members of the original group saw themselves as logical), the official story claims that the name comes from a statue in Birmingham, Ala. (Rice’s hometown).
But here’s the problem, Wonkette gets all high and mighty and then proves she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about. She tries to explain the Klingons as representing the Vietcong on TV, wanders through some vaguely anti-semitic remarks and largely makes herself look stupid.
C’mon Wonky. Ever heard of Wikipedia? The Romulans represented China, while the Klingons were supposed to be Soviet Russia. If you’re going to be smart-ass and snarky, do a little fact-checking.
See, this is problem with self-styled journalists becoming famous bloggers. What we’ve created here is the media version of the high school cafeteria cool kids table where’s it’s more important to have the cool put down than to get the facts right.
Edit: I failed to add a link to the original post out of, well, snarkiness. However, it was pointed out that this is probably poor form. So have at it.