Instapundit: The most powerful toddler
Glenn Reynolds almost forgot: Today is the fifth anniversary of Instapundit. The dynamics of media took a hairpin turn then as it became clear that a law professor with inexplicable spare time could draw more attention to media than media itself. Happy birthday, kid.
Tags: Weblogs
August 8th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
I always felt he was a pompous coward. If he wasn’t he would allow replies to his pontificating. How is this any different than the blowhards in the print media?
Just because it started up online, doesn’t make it something special.
The two big things that the internet created were the web of hyperlinked information, and access to a worldwide pool of knowledge.
Back in the 1980’s before the web was even invented I used Usenet to show people how one could get an answer to almost any question within a few hours by just posting it in the proper news group. This type of access to information never existed before. To get an answer one had to know someone who might know someone who might know the answer.
Now you just toss it out in to hyperspace and a totally anonymous person will provide you with information. Much of this has now been codified in sites like Wikipedia, but the principle is the same.
August 8th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Yeah, indeed. When I started my activist “blog” in 1996, I had no idea what a destructive influence the Internet would have on politics. Instead of bringing the people together by providing them with better information, it’s actually polarized us by giving spin-doctors a larger megaphone.
If Lamont the cable guy wins in Connecticutt today, the last days of the Republic will surely be upon us.
August 9th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Don’t be such a pessimist.
More speech is better. It lets the best ideas develop unfettered, and the worst ones die unsupported…
August 10th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Heh.