Finally, a book about "those bloggers"

I was planning to write something all along this week about this official release of my friend Eric Boehlert's outstanding new book, "Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press." I now realize after the events of the last few daysweek that while a lot of folks, especially the politically obsessed, will find Eric's book to be an enjoyable tome, it ought to be required reading in every newsroom, for the handful of curmudgeonly newspaper folks still collecting a paycheck, anyway.

Why? Because instead of referring to these online pioneers as "those bloggers" (yes, as a matter of fact I am referring to Harold Jackson), which is kind of the online journalism equivalent of referring to an ethnic groups as "you people," maybe mainstream journalists could come away with the realization that, goshdarnit, bloggers are people, too -- i.e., interesting, passionate, flawed, intelligent, and as unique and different from each other as "those journalists" Seymour Hersh and Liz Smith, to pick any two "journalists" at fairly random.

That's not to say there aren't common traits that are shared by the bloggers -- like Crooks and Liars' John Amato, and his odyssey from playing the sax for the revived Duran Duran to rocking the blogosphere by beating YouTube to the video punch, or his L.A. wordsmith neighbor Digby. They include frustration over politics as usual, a desire to make a differece (typically against long odds), and a unique skillset -- from techno genius to searing commentary -- to make that happen.

One other thing I like about "Bloggers on the Bus" is that it ratifies my conviction that Philadelphia rivals L.A. as a blogging capital of the Western World. So it's a good chance to meet local hellraisers like Susie "Suburban Guerilla" Madrak (and her civil war against crude Hillary-trashing liberals, that was peaking just a year ago), and Duncan "Atrios" Black, who continues to hurl brickbats and call out wankers from an undisclosed location somewhere in South Philly. At the very least, you'll learn that bloggers actually have names.