Blogging--A Response by Posner to a Comment

I want to respond to a single comment because it reflects interesting misunderstandings of the blogging phenomenon. The comment takes Becker and me to task for not responding to all the comments (on our postings) that are criticial of us. By thus not responding, we are said by the commenter to be shutting off debate. We are not shutting off debate, and this for three reasons. First, a failure to respond to a criticism may end a debate in the sense of leaving nothing more to be said, but it does not "stifle" debate or silence the critic--on the contrary, it leaves the critic with the last word. Second, the comments are public--they are accessible to readers of the blog, at no cost, with a click. We "enable" (as the blogging expression has it) all comments; we engage in no censorship. Someone who reads a comment critical of a posting of mine or Becker's and observes that we have not responded to it will be more inclined to agree with the critic than if we did respond. And third, and most important, bloggers have no "market power" that might enable them to limit debate. Not only are there 10 million blogs, but because it is costless (except for opportunity costs of time--though these can of course be significant and are one reason why Becker and I do not respond to all the comments on our postings) to create or post to a blog, and as any posting is diffused throughout the "blogosphere" essentially instantaneously, there is no way in which inaccuracies in a blog can be insulated from prompt correction. There is nothing to prevent the commenter fronm creating his own "anti-Becker-Posner" blog devoted to correcting our mistakes and omissions! There is another point worth noting. Inaccuracies in blogs are less pernicious than inaccuracies in the mainstream media even apart from the superior opportunity for prompt correction of bloggers' errors. The reason is that bloggers are known not to employ fact checkers or editors; there is no pretense that they have the resources to eliminate all errors in their postings. The mainstream media, in contrast, represent to their public that they endeavor assiduously to prevent errors from finding their way into articles and broadcasts. They ask the public to repose trust in them. Bloggers do not. That is why serious errors by the mainstream media are played as scandals; they are not merely mistakes--they are breaches of trust.

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I do not think your psychoanalysis of me is either appropriate or necessary. I would even call it malicious. If you disagree with my points, fine. But psychoanalysis is really beyond the pale. You are a mathematics student, not a clinical psychologist with years of experience who has evaluated me in person over any period of time sufficient to diagnose with the certitude required for professionalism. And for someone to state that a blog site with enabled comments is not an interpretative community where debate takes place is -- to be charitable -- incorrect.

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The idea that anybody has some sort of obligation to answer every comment strikes me as absurd as claiming that blogs should be disregarded because they have no editors or fact checkers. It's an attempt to take over the discussion on someone else's bandwidth and dictate to the blog proprietors what they can write about.

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