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Current Events » in reply to Who does he have to be?

re: Who does he have to be? Identifiable.
Mary Anne — (archived)

Notice that columnists for established outfits have bios that one can read.

Now, anyone is entitled to an opinion. Some people's credentials make their opinion more informed than others.

Some people's credentials can be verified. People who just say they have credentials but offer no details and no real contact information could really have those credentials, or they could be talking through their hats.

If people use their public voices to say things about others, and they are easily identified, then they can be held responsible for the things they say. If they just blog on and on and base their contact information on an email off in the ether, only people who can afford private investigators, or who have oodles of free time, can track them down.

Blogs are self-referential columns. Anyone with enough time to devote to one can have one. If you wish to use a blog as a jumping off point for a discussion -- "This is this guy's opinion" -- that's fine. If you want to cite them as authorities, generally speaking, fuggedaboudit.

There are bloggers who attach bios and curricula vitae, who are a cut above the rest for that reason. Glenn Reynolds is one of those. He also goes out of his way to point out that he is just talking about things that go through his head while he is doing something else, and that he has no research department backing him up, the way print and electronic journalists have. He acknowledges that he is an absolute authority on what he thinks.

I am an absolute authority on what I think, too. That means that my opinion is worth as much as most of the bloggers out there.

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