Ruminations on Local Blogs

We're way beyond Letters to the Editor these days, and the public conversation is far more lively and usually more interesting than anything since our local newspapers and television stations sold out and were bought up by corporate chains. Not everyone is amused by the expanded opportunities for citizens to speak their mind and talk back to their betters, but they will adjust as they become more comfortable with hearing the voice of the people and having gypsies in the palace.

We are blessed with a diverse array of local online information and opinions, and here's a sample of what's going on in our community. Richard Drake's Street Jazz has a piece today about Mayor Coody and political perceptions. Aubrey Shepherd's Albunique is advocating rain gardens as a solution for erosion in Red Oak Park. Terri Chadick's All Sides of Life lets us know what's happening for kids, families, and adults who have grown up but refuse to grow old. If you like Rush Limbaugh, you'll love Valerie Biendara's blog about her cats and why all Democrats are awful. There are others that are updated every so often. Even Springdale has a fine blogger in Josh Jenkin's Springdale Votes that follows city government and The Naturals.

It is downright pathetic that Benton County appears to have no bloggers interested enough to report on and evaluate local political life in Stepford. Lowell alone would keep someone busy, and Rogers Mayor Steve Womack provides daily outrages that should spark some minimum of citizen commentary; then there are all those public officials taking kickbacks, stealing drugs from dead people, harassing people about their clothes, and shooting unarmed citizens. I mean, even the Dogtown bloggers from North Little Rock have two outstanding resources in the Argenta News and the Levy Project, as well as neighborhood commentary from Rose City, Lakewood, and Scenic Hill.

Local blogs foster participatory democracy and build community, provide information and encourage civic participation, check the arrogance of public officials and shine light on private interests that would hijack control of our collective destiny as citizens. They are better than community access television. Blogs are sometimes disorderly and misinformed, but most are interactive and provide an opportunity for immediate contradiction or correction. Sometimes local officials don't like blogs, usually when the bloggers are doing their jobs and are right in recognizing foolishness. It is irritating to those who have always run the show to be without the protective cover of the corporate media to print their press releases and repeat their spin unrefuted and to have to read the opinions of the unwashed and unvetted citizens who are their rightful bosses.