Snappy the Clam

Being heard:

Well, the old "everyone's equal online" meme rears its ugly head yet again. Right. Jarvis was just another one 'o' the little people, just like you and me. Well, except for that tv gig flogging blogs, but otherwise we're the same. It's not that he's a longtime media flack, it's that he dug up a Dell VP's email address. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly that second really muddy point actually means, but as far as I can figure it he's saying that if somebody listens, it makes a difference in customer service. As an aside, they're customers, not constituents; I don't recall an election where Dell got elected to anything. Think about that for a second. Most of the time, when you call customer service, you're not thinking that you're striking a blow for all the company's customers. You're just trying to get your widget fixed or cancel your order or whatever. I sometimes find myself wondering if Jarvis is staring at Soviet posters and playing thrilling anthems when he writes this stuff. Everything, as with so many of the SCAL, is always so hyperbolic.

So how does Citizen Bane illustrate the amplification effect of the little people online?

He cites the example of an NC blogger who wanted his local paper to start providing RSS feeds. He complained that he felt much closer to a paper 30 miles away in Greensboro that provided all its content online. The paper responded and started an RSS feed shortly thereafter.

Slam-dunk example of the empowering effect of blogs, right?

Well. early on in the article, the author says this:

So, already, the SCAL has its fingers all over this. Somehow this one got traction? Right. The author says it got traction because it was quoted by a widely read blogger, Jay "Female Terror" Rosen.

So what are we saying? Who is that very special one reader Jarvis does go on about? Is it Jay Rosen, or the guy at the Winston-Salem paper?

Also, what was that competing, RSS-loving paper? How did Jay Rosen come to quote this exchange? Though he's mentioned nowhere in the article, probably through A-list journo fave Ed Cone, who just happens to work at the competing paper the blogger feels so "close to" - the Greensboro News and Record.

So, it's got nothing to do with connections. It's got nothing to do with fame conferring power. It's a pure meritocracy and the little people made a difference.

How cynically disingenuous.

You're going to have to come up with something better than that.

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