As the Tables Turn: Blog Critis

(Via Kuff) TechBlog: Would the local blogosphere benefit from a blog critic?

As I've been looking for and reading hundreds of Houston blogs with an eye toward linking them on our Opinion page, I've been thinking a lot about the quality of the posts. There's a wide variety out there, from insightful analysis and compelling writing to a lot of copying/pasting of other material, followed by what amounts to a "Yeah, right" comment . . . kind of the Web equivalent of radio's rip-and-read, with snark.

It got me to thinking. Would Houston's blogging community benefit from a blogging critic?

In short ... yeah, it would be good. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If blogs earn their street cred by second-guessing the mainstream media, then there's nothing sacrosanct about us bloggers that would be above the reverse situation.

That said, I think some of the criteria he's got are problematic:

This person would have to be someone who's non-partisan, who's been blogging awhile, and who has the respect of the blogging community.

Speaking as one of the growing number of political bloggers in Houston, I think the idea of non-partisanship is a tough hurdle right at the outset. We bloggers are what we are. Better to lay the bias on the table rather than strive for the professional journalism goal of objectivity. If the pick is chosen for their non-partisan nature, I give it a week before they're called to task for exhibiting bias of some sort.

And like Kuff, I'm not so myopic as to believe this duty should fall on the shoulders of a non-blogger. True, there's something inherent in the nature of bloggers that compels us to write like few others. But I've also been witness to several contributors, commentors, and others with a good bit of a critical nature to know that the playing field isn't closed. Even truer, I'm sure Dwight's gotta have a writing sample to choose from, also.

Respect? Good luck on that one.

In short, I think you can probably pick one of two of those categories and really strive for meeting them. But all three? I don't see it happening.

Some realistic judgement calls also enter into the equation. Such as: who's got the time to be the blog critic? My bet is that that could just as easily trump any of the initial factors.

Secondly, I'll agree with Kuff ... whoever does it ought to have asbestos underwear. The last thing that would benefit being a blog critic is to be blogdom's answer to Magic Johnson in a field full of Howard Sterns.