The Netroots and the London Tabloids

A very long, very interesting piece of analysis from Alex Massie. A snippet:

Atrios (Duncan Black) for instance, is a tabloid columnist manque. He has exactly the right combination of spite, sneering and bullying for the job. It's ferociously partisan and bracingly, gratuitously unfair, mean-spirited, sexist, wearisome, entertaining, etc etc. That's why his blog is gripping. In other words: it works. If you were to put a British tabloid in Washington, Atrios would be right at home on its op-ed pages (and his presence would add greatly to the gaiety of the nation). His "Wanker of the Day" feature is a stylistic flourish that would be right at home on the pages of Britain's best-selling newspapers. It's also easy to imagine the Firedoglake collective on the pages of a British mid-market tabloid.

Read it all.

Comments

Massie maybe correct about Duncan Black et al. being tabloid-like but this bit near the beginning is absurd:

Looking back on the past five years in Washington, it is remarkable that the Democratic party has been so restrained in its response to a manifestly incompetent and (at least!) borderline crooked administration.

Either politics are incredibly more acrimonious in Britain or Mr. Massie has been living in a bubble.

Posted by Steven | October 16, 2007 3:32 PM

Sounds about right to me, Steven. Little in the way of investigations, and capitulation on torture, prolonged war, executive power to spy on US citizens without a warrant, and ending habeas, even though those are all very unpopular policies.

It's not like there's been zero confrontation, but they sure have capitulated on some important stuff.

Posted by Elvis Elvisberg | October 16, 2007 3:41 PM

Yes, but I don't think American bloggers are quite as drunk as English columnists.

Posted by Steve Sailer | October 16, 2007 7:45 PM