Diary of a Mad Editor

Humorist/Media Personality, Garrison Keillor, has a piece in The Baltimore Sun, that demands a response. See, ole Garrison has joined a long list of big name writers, who’s finally realized that new media isn’t some joke or some fad that’s going to disappear — he’s realized that the old media publishing world that brought him to fame is on the verge of extinction and he doesn’t like it.

He’s as entitled as the next guy to his opinion, I suppose. I just wish he could add something new to the discussion. The old media good/new media bad argument doesn’t really hold that much weight, really. Yes, there’s a lot of self-published material out there that is of very low quality. Sure. But how does that negate the reality that there’s some good stuff that comes self-published.  And what about blogging? The blogosphere is made up almost entirely of the self-published?  You guys reading this blog, you think all blogs are bad just because the blog writer hasn’t been anointed by the New York Times or HarperCollins? Also, am I missing something, Garrison Keillor? Since when did texting and tweeting, or making wall posts on Facebook count as writing? Since when is my niece, who sends hundreds of texts every day a writer because she uses this technology? New Media doesn’t really change the writer’s job description. There’s still plenty of room for tortured geniuses — or at least crackpots who think they’re geniuses. And there’s plenty of room for the housewife who blogs about babies and wedding accessories too.

Writing wasn’t invented by your generation of writers, Mr… Keillor, nor was publishing invented by your "old media". Writers will write, will struggle to write, and write some more now and for as long as people exist and have at least a few functioning brain cells. So, you go on and cry for you own damn self and what you think the new media is costing you. Don’t cry for me. I’m okay. I’m going to be just fine. And so will the rest of the writers out there.