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March 29, 2005
Instapundit on the Religious Right
Glenn Reynolds is commenting on the Hugh Hewitt/Jeff Jarvis discussion on the religious right. He offers us all some sage advice:
On the other hand, here's some advice, very similar to advice I gave to the antiwar movement: If you don't want to be confused with a movement led by theocrats, don't let actual theocrats be seen as your spokesmen. It may be impossible to shut Randall Terry up -- though if I were Karl Rove, I would have tried really hard -- but he needs to be loudly and regularly denounced as a nut. Otherwise you're in the same boat as lefties who don't want to be identified with Ward Churchill, but happily use him when they want to draw a crowd.
Words of wisdom, methinks.
Posted by Matt at March 29, 2005 06:28 PM
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Methinks not. Randall Terry wants attention. He doesn't care if it comes as criticism or support.
When a journalist writes a hit-piece on blogs and holds up some extremist marginal player as typical, I don't recall seeing Glenn Reynolds "loudly and regularly denounce" those bloggers. That gives them more prominence than they deserve. He mocks the journalists who portray them as representative and points to better examples.
Do you see a reason for adopting Glenn's advice rather than his own behavior over this kind of matter?
Posted by: Doug at March 29, 2005 09:19 PM
It's not the same thing. A NYT reporter cruising the internet can find whatever he/she wants without any work on the part of the blogger. Randall Terry, on the other hand, looks for the camera.
Posted by: Matt at March 29, 2005 09:29 PM
It is the same thing. The medium doesn't change the message. Terry looks for the camera the same way bombastic bloggers look for links and citations. It's all just attention.
Posted by: Doug at March 30, 2005 01:03 AM