Mike Barnicle & WTKK

Most mornings I listen to NPR and the BBC on WBUR. Then at some point I switch over to WTKK and listen to Barnicle, unless he makes me crazy.........then it's Eagan & Braude who I love. So today in the car, I'm listening to Barnicle, Dan Shaughnessy and their guest Frank Rich of the NYT (I loathe him), and they are ranking on bloggers. We're all crazy, we're blogging in our fast food littered basements, in our pajamas, never seeing the light of day.

Then Shaughnessy reads an old Doonesbury comic strip mocking bloggers. So I called the station. I told them Doonesbury has a blog now! And by the way, it's good and you should check it out. The Princess' Grand Vizier has a post a up there. It's the wave of the future! So they point out that they know who Doonesbury is and they resent the anonymous ones. I responded that plenty of bloggers are quite open about their identities. I cited Blackfive and The Castle of Argghh as favorites, and snuck in a quick plug for Matty's book, "Blogs of War".

Their main objection was anonymity and the fact that bloggers can't devote the time and resources to researching a particular story. But bloggers can pull together threads from so many diverse sources. Why is it an either/or thing? I love blogging and reading blogs. I love listening to MSM. Having both makes me better informed. Where else would I have the chance to mention reading military history and have someone from the Pentagon recommend a particular translation on Clausewitz? Where else could I talk about The Chesapeake and have Commodore Barron's descendent comment on it? Nevermind having the chance to profess my love of all things Boston, all things Navy, and my favorite army guy MG Rick Lynch.

They asked if I had a blog? Yes, but I wouldn't identify it because I called into the show with my real name (again, as I have said before, if you think you know me and/or need to know who I am, email me, we'll discuss it).
They asked how I knew if anyone was reading me. I explained about sitemeter and the people it shows (although some military readers do not show up in sitemeter, hmmmm).

They asked if I had a job, I said yes, full time. Kids - yes, 2 and 2 extra. Life - yes, I pointed out I have called the show before and explained about the rotation (men in my orbit who vie for my attention with varying degrees of success).

They wanted to know how often I blogged - pretty much daily. About what? Nnonsense!!!!!! All nonsense!!!!!!

And for the record - no pajamas here. My computer at home is at the foot of my bed and....as the rotation knows - there are no pajamas worn there.................