Johann Drops a Blog

I’ve been out of town for a few days.

Apparently, Springfield’s very own tabloid (and by “tabloid” I mean a periodical that is essentially nothing more than a gossip magazine that never lets the facts get in the way of an article), Illinois Times, published a pissy little blurb about the city’s bloggers. I refuse to link to the article out of principle. Besides, I’m sure most all of you have read the article by now anyway. Seems the article called the bloggers middle-aged men who sit and type in their underpants (does anyone above the age of about six use the word “underpants”?!) and complain about what they wish their lives had become, or some bullshit like that.

Some local bloggers fought back with posts blasting the article and IT in general. I particularly enjoyed the comment saying that most bloggers have more readers than does the author of that article.

But here’s why I’m not too upset by it. A, I am a middle-aged man. However, some of SPI’s better blogs are written by less-than-middle-aged women (this one and this one are two of my personal favorites), so I can see how the generalization was met with disdain. Even though everyone knows all generalizations are true. Just as everyone knows that 87% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Two, I have blogged (and, come to think of it, read and occasionally responded to many of your blogs as well ) in my underwear before. Boy, was the manager of Panera in a bad mood THAT day.

And D- and this is the key- it’s the Illinois Times, folks. It’s not like it’s a real newspaper. In fact, they’re nothing more than the equivalent of bloggers in written form. I find it kind of funny (in a sad, pathetic way) how they blast the fine bloggers in our city (and no, I do not consider myself in that category) for essentially the very thing they are guilty of themselves.

The blog you are reading right now has a long, storied history of (and has taken several severe and often well-deserved beatings for) ranting and raving and taking cheap shots at pretty much anything and everything, much like IT does. But at least I don’t take myself or my posts seriously, or more specifically, make any attempt to call myself a “journalist”. Any IT contributor that considers themselves a “journalist” is a bit like people who sport Protecting the Environment license plates on their cars calling themselves “environmentalists”.

There is a reason why Illinois Times is free and available at finer grocery stores, greasy spoons, and laundromats all over town. Nobody that reads it- even those that might read it “regularly”- would consider paying for it. In fact, IT should pay anyone who has ever read it as compensation for having wasted their time while taking a shit. The only thing I read IT for is their “Best of Springfield” issue so I can ponder things like how people can possibly vote D’Arcy’s as having the best horseshoe year after year. Beyond that, Illinois Times is nothing more than a complete waste of trees that serves no purpose.

I have quite a few blogs listed in my blogroll that I read regularly (for several different reasons, one of which being because some actually have differing views than my own), and I apologize to any blogs that are blatantly missing from my blogroll because I haven’t discovered them yet. (Any recommendations are welcome…) To all you bloggers here in Springfield that get dozens to hundreds or more hits an hour because you present quality posts that people actually enjoy reading, keep up your great work and don’t even think of letting that ridiculous article get under your skin.

Pardon the potty mouth, but fuck Illinois Times. If my dog shit on my pillow, I wouldn’t use IT to pick it up. To do so would be a slap in the face to dog shit.