A rookie blogger tries to run up front with the big boys

You know the yellow stripes NASCAR puts on rookies' bumpers? I've got one on the back of this office chair.

Don't be fooled by the image of the aging duffer that appears atop this blog. I've been blogging all of three or four days now, so I definitely qualify for rookie status. And, like NASCAR's rooks, I'm having fun, but I'm also trying to be kinda careful. A rookie doesn't want to take out Dale Earnhardt Jr., you know, and incur the wrath of the Budweiser-red army.

On the other end of the spectrum from my blue chair with the yellow tape is a blogger who goes by Anonymoses. And judging from the looks of his blog and some of what he writes, Anonymoses is a pretty bright guy.

Me? I've always envisioned myself more as the eventual proprietor of a bar I'll call Fool's Rush Inn. So why, you've gotta be wondering, would a somewhat slow rookie blogger try to pick a fight with an established veteran who has such a solid track record and big following?

Well, I'm not. A little civil debate would be OK with me, but mainly, I'm trying to stick up for my town and my newspaper.

Anonymoses got ticked off a few days ago by an article that appeared in the business section of The Charlotte Observer and was written by one John McBride. http://anonymoses.blogspot.com/2005/02/when-will-charlotte-observer-wake-up.html

In said article, McBride writes eloquently but none-too-flatteringly about blogs and bloggers. All of which Anonymoses chonicles in his blog. To wit (I've labeled the exchange for a little clarity):

McBride: At last count, there were 8 million blogs, the new online journal craze that's sweeping the nation. The numbers are growing fast. Anyone who can get online can start one for nothing and say whatever they want.

Anonymoses: Do I detect a little envy here? :)

McBride: Forget about metacogni-whosis for a minute. Eight million people writing what they know online!

Blogging may represent the ultimate triumph of free speech. Everyone's a publisher with no limitations on space or distribution. Write as much as you like -- no extra charge for paper or postage.

Anonymoses: This is no small advantage. Who knows? Maybe he is secretly promoting blogging, only subreptiously, so he won't get whacked by the man upstairs.

McBride: Or blogging may represent the ultimate in banality. Actual quote from a randomly selected blog: "Finally got my birthday card from my parents. It came today, but the neighbor got it in her box by mistake. I'm glad they didn't forget." Oooooo -- author!

Anonymoses: OK. Go pick a random quote from a random newspaper. Here. I will...

I'm not going to defend McBride's position. Can't even say I agree all that much with it. But I came up firmly believing - and still do - that he has every right to his opinion. And this being the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, I'll damn sure defend his right to have that opinion and express it at will.

Same for Anonymoses.

I've just got to wonder where Anonymoses gets off trashing Charlotte and the newspaper. He's reading and reacting to the opinion of but one employee of an extremely large company. And McBride is only one resident of what amounts to a pretty decent-sized city, too.

I've known McBride for several years, as has Anonymoses. I've worked with McBride, but never for him, which Anonymoses apparently did at one time. All three of us worked in the Observer's newsroom.

McBride made the move to a full-time gig in the IT end of the business several years back, but likes to keep his hand in as an occasional writer. Same with me. I play an auto racing editor on the Internet, but still like to pull an occasional desk shift in the Observer's newsroom to stay in touch with those skills.

I don't know what Anonymoses' day job is. And I don't know whether his experiences with John McBride, The Charlotte Observer and Charlotte were good, bad, ugly or indifferent.

Unlike McBride, I kinda like this blogging thing. And, as Anonymoses very capably points out, all those millions of people who do blogs and read them can't be as wrong as McBride suggests.

But, heck, in the old days they just killed the messenger. I get the impression that had Anonymoses been king then, they'd probably have cut off the messenger's head, hanged all the scribes and torched the whole danged town for good measure.