All humans, at some point in their lives, go ahead and die. Ages and causes of death vary widely.
Bloggers are humans.
All bloggers, at some point in their lives, go ahead and die. Ages and causes of death vary widely.
But, if you are a journalist with a dry spell in your inspiration, and if you feel threatened by bloggers, and if you already used all the cliches about bloggers being unruly, unwashed, untrustworthy Martians who lie (and point at Powerline, Instapundit or Little Green Footballs as if they were examples of the best of blogging, instead of the cesspools of racist, mysogynist idiocy they really are, the blogs that all other bloggers detest precisely because they give blogging a bad name), and you need a fresh way to bash bloggers, then you sit down and write this piece of tripe: blogging is not just bad for the society, it is also bad for bloggers themselves. So perhaps they should all quit, eh?
Yes, two bloggers died. At two different ages, from two different causes. Steve Gilliard also died, at a third age from a third cause. And so did many other, not as well known bloggers. So what? They did not die FROM blogging. They died because they are human. But it is anathema for Corporate Media to admit that bloggers are humans (i.e., the previously silent readers and voters, who have opinions different than what the Media likes to say that "American People" think), so this kind of crap gets a green light from the New York Times editors. Blah.
Update: Of course, the blogosphere is reacting:
Stupid news story
Blog or and die
does work/life balance exist?
NY Times: Blogging'll kill ya?
Death by blogging?
Anatomy of a 'Blogging will kill you' story: Why I didn't make the cut
Stress and Blogging
Writers Blog Till They Drop
On The Need for Blogging Balance
...and many more...
Humanities & Social Science
Technology
Comments
The New York Times has become a sad sick joke. It would be fucking hilarious if it weren't so dangerous that huge numbers of people still think of it as "serious" journalism.
Posted by: PhysioProf | April 6, 2008 1:58 PM
Amen! But one needs to read good blogs for a while to realize this. People who are busy with their lives still harbor the illusions that NYT and WaPo are decent newspapers, or that Lou Dobbs and Wolf Blitzer are journalists.
Posted by: Coturnix | April 6, 2008 2:00 PM
You're not giving the Grey Lady enough credit - enforcing class hierarchies and making rich people's habits seem worthwhile and interesting is difficult, important work!
Posted by: Maria | April 6, 2008 2:09 PM
Oh, but without NYT weekly editorials on the way women should quit careers and get married, we would beloeve, oh horror, that we are living in a post-feminist society ;-)
Thanks to the editors of NYT we get weekly (or daily) reminders that patriarchy is live and well in this country.
Posted by: Coturnix | April 6, 2008 2:12 PM
Considering that over 860,000 Americans die of heart disease every year, two bloggers dying is not such a surprise. People do, in fact have limited life spans, even bloggers.
Posted by: PalMD | April 6, 2008 2:19 PM
Yes I'd like to see the real statistics compared to non-bloggers of similar age.
And one of those two tragedies "did not die at his desk. He died in a hotel in San Jose, Calif., where he had flown to cover a technology conference." So maybe if had stayed at home blogging then he'd still be alive?
Posted by: RNB | April 6, 2008 4:29 PM
If I remember the stats well, the journalists have the shortest life spans of all professions. Moving from print to blog may prolong their lives, methinks.
Posted by: Coturnix | April 6, 2008 8:25 PM
Not all bloggers are human. I'm a cat. I blog all the time and still manage to sleep 20 hours a day.
Posted by: Quasi | April 7, 2008 3:39 PM
Cats have seven lives. LOLCats live forever. Beat that!
Posted by: Coturnix | April 7, 2008 4:34 PM