The Blue Herald

(Not cross-posted at The Blue Herald!)


That, umm, small group of folks that check in on this modest blog with any regularity may have noticed that I've cross-posted the last passel of entries over at The Blue Herald (formerly News You Can Abuse, but now with a .com address and a sleek new WordPress design by Buck). About a month ago now I was invited to join the gang over at The Blue Herald. I will continue to post any substantial work here at Vagabond Scholar, but for most posts I'll cross-post them over at Blue Herald as well.

One can debate the relative merits and demerits of Blogger versus WordPress for page design and all that. Regardless, I must give great credit to Blogger for allowing free bandwidth to nascent bloggers such as myself. Talk about democracy in action! As Howard Kurtz noted this Monday:

What YouTube and social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook have in common is that they eliminate the media middleman. Musicians, comedians and other artists (not to mention the date-deprived) can sell themselves to other people without having to convince a journalist that they are worthy of ink or airtime. Unfortunately, the old media establishment too often paints this world as dark and dangerous -- "What Parents Need to Know About MySpace," says a U.S. News cover story -- while playing down its fun and creative aspects.

Meanwhile, there’s something neat about a group blog. Those of us who work day jobs (and sometimes night jobs as well!) cannot possibly hope to keep up with the big bloggers for whom it’s a full-time gig. Thus, a small blog like this can highlight a few important stories, but is better suited for the occasional op-ed, essay, or arts review. One thing I like about Blue Herald is that I can read a news story and think, “that’s important,” and more often than not, someone else at the site will have found it as well and linked it! Then there’s the fun of discovering some story you might have missed otherwise.

This site will likely never receive much traffic, but now that I’m done with the latest play, I hope to catch up on some other writing, both for the blogs and otherwise. Thanks to those of you that check in from time to time, and be sure to check out The Blue Herald as well!