Mencken Lives

I never heard of Nick Coleman of the Minneapolis StarTribune (never read the StarTribune actually) until I started reading Power Line, the blog which most of us know has been named Blog of the Year by Time. But now I have some respect for Coleman because he knows where the action is and spends a great deal of his time writing and apparently obsessing about Power Line–a great deal more time than the reverse, I would imagine.

Why?

We all know that most journalism (and blogs, of course) is biased–it happens to be written by humans who tend to have opinions–so what’s the big deal that Power Line is conservative (whatever that means)? Why are they–besides the obvious fact that they write well–the subject of so much interest on Coleman’s part? The opinion meister lets the proverbial cat out of the bag in his year end column (tedious registraton required). He is obsessed with amount of money the Power Line guys make and how much money he (Coleman) makes. What does this have to do with the price of beans, milk, beer… insert your favorite product here? No one is starving here, yet Coleman seems almost paranoid about the issue. Or is he? In the next years, a finanancial realignment between blogs and MSM is almost certain to occur. Eyes are going to the blogs and departing the MSM. The Colemans of the world are indeed at risk.

Was it Mencken who said “When they say it’s not about money, it’s about money.” Something like that.