A Progressive on the Prairie

Thursday marginalia

The quantity of material (or my amusement level) continues at a pace that prompts a second consecutive day of marginalia:

My friend MinusCar is a very brave man. Of course, I am seriously overpaying to watch The Daily Show and hockey.
Doug Wiken’s inimitable style says some of what I was thinking about some of the gushing over the so-called traditional media-SD blogosphere marriage (a project I declined because it focuses on politics). And I cracked up over the phrase “blog of many ads” as I’ve directly voiced that very complaint in the past (although Todd is far from alone in that regard). I also had to chuckle when Anna at Dakota Women titled her post announcing her participation, “Yeah, I sold out.“
Evidently traditional Brazilian media isn’t as impressed with blogs. One newspaper is running an ad saying that “if you read those stupid blog things instead of real newspapers, you’re reading junk written by monkeys.” Having once been told that “any monkey” could do my job, I take offense on behalf of monkeys everywhere.
Is “hyperlocalism” in American newspapers (the Argus being a prime example) a buzzword for “cheap”? (Via.)
And the American Journalism Review looks at whether it has led to a reduction in newspaper film critics. (Via.)
Jay Kinney’s essay on “The Conspiracy Boom” is worth reading as he explores, among other things, why he thinks we have reached a juncture “where paranoia afflicts the body politic like an involuntary twitch.”
Or is this just an age of endarkenment? (Via.)
Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, this week kicked off “In Retrospect,” a 10-year project to look at all of its former book prize finalists and winners. As of the date of the announcement, that’s 658 books (which, according to my math, is more like 12.5 years at one book a week).
Sam Houston asks whether listening to an audiobook is cheating.