Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

The columnist has the best and worst of jobs. The good part is that a publisher allows him or her to earn a handsome living by cranking out a mix of rant and reason. The bad bit is that the task is a treadmill, and every deadline brings with it the chore of finding a new sermon to preach. Is it any wonder that columnists faced with such an existential grind tend to be, as the say in Ireland, "fond of the bottle"?

One of the most influential of today's tech columnists is John C. Dvorak of PC Magazine. His writings are read avidly by a huge number of readers and his pronouncements across the consumer electronics board carry considerable weight. For some strange reason, however, he's decided that there's hay to be made by bad mouthing blogs. It makes no sense on the face of it, but the sad fact is that Dvorak has become a serial blog basher. Don't believe me? Here's the evidence.

His most recent column, Co-opting the Future, dated 19 November, kicks off with this statement:

"Blogs, or Web logs, are all the rage in some quarters. We're told that blogs will evolve into a unique source of information and are sure to become the future of journalism. Well, hardly. Two things are happening to prevent such a future: The first is wholesale abandonment of blog sites, and the second is the casual co-opting of the blog universe by Big Media."

So what? With millions of blogs sprouting up, it's inevitable that the drop-out rate will be high, and if Big Media is snapping up the good bloggers that's surely a sign of success, not failure. The list of bloggers who have moved from relative rags to veritable riches is getting longer by the day. But as I said at the outset, Dvorak has his own agenda when it comes to blogs, as a look at his archives shows.

Back on 5 February 2002, in a column entitled The Blog Phenomenon, he asks: "Why, exactly, do people want to have other people read these ramblings?" Putting on his sociologist's hat he comes up with drivers such as ego gratification, antidepersonalization, and:

"Wanna-be writers. A lot of people want to be published writers. Blogs make it happen without the hassle of getting someone else to do it or having to write well — although there is good writing to be found. Some is shockingly good. Most of it is miserable."

Really? This would be the moment to adduce the list of brilliant writers — from Atrios to Zeldman — who are using the electronic diary format to redefine the nature of opinion making, but what's the point? It would only serve to enrage Dvorak even more as it's exactly these new "columnists" who are chipping away at his crumbling throne.

The man's vituperation plumbed its lowest dept on 2 April last year in a column called Deconstructing the Blog. Based on some kind of dotty research, Dvorak comes up with his "Eight Rules for the Perfect Blog". Number one reads:

"The right attitude. Make it clear that you spend the day, week, or month sitting on your rump reading other blogs instead of looking for work. Or if you actually work, make it clear that you are writing the blog at work, because you hate your job."

Comment, as they say, would be superfluous. It's high time, though, that John C. Dvorak found a new hobbyhorse as this blog one is clapped out.

Diarist of the day: Beatrice Webb, 25 November 1882

"What a blessing I can write in this little book without fearing that anyone will ever read and ridicule the nonsense and half-sense I scribble. That has been the attraction of a 'diary-book' to me — one can talk one's little thinkings out to a highly appreciative audience, dumb but not deaf."