Bloggers Rule, Papers Drool

I just got back from the classy downtown LA Athletic Club, which hosted an evening on blogs. I thought we might hear a history of the subject. Instead, Hugh Hewitt, blogger, writer, radio host, spoke on how blogs are the wave of the future and the mainstream media is yesterday's news.

If there was a single message of the night, it was "LA Times sucks." Others, including Roger L. Simon and Armed Liberal, helped piled on. It's an oppressive, stagnant monopoly that ill-serves its city (or so they said--often to applause). Mickey Kaus, who was not expecting to give a speech, simply noted it would be tragic if the mainstream media disappeared, but it would not be tragic if the LA Times did. Ah, brevity.

LA Times editor and good sport Bob Sipchen admitted he was there as a pinata, and did his best to defend his employer. He was smart enough to compliment the blogs for putting the MSM to the test, but also noted there's still no replacement for original reporting. (Though Roger Simon thought the blogs might horn in on that before too soon.)

There was a lot of mingling before and after. I met Rene of Rene's Ramblings. He seemed to be taking notes, so perhaps you could check him out for a more factual report of the evening.

Amy Alkon helped set up the event. She said a recent hot-button item for her is men forced to pay child support who turn out not to be biological fathers. (Matt Welch has written on this in the past. He was supposed to be at the event, along with his beauteous wife, Emmanuelle, but for whatever reason they were no-shows.)

I saw Moxie for the first time in a year. A friend I'd brought along started arguing with her about abortion (friend pro, Moxie con) but the conversation broke up before they were able to settle their differences.

I tried to talk to Mickey Kaus about his theory on filibusters (scroll down to Monday) but he said he was over all that. He apparently got a lot of emails about his stance and doesn't care if he ever hears the word filibuster again.

I did get to meet Mr. Hewitt, who was quite charming. We talked for a few minutes and he said he'd look up my blog if he could remember the name. Hi, Hugh. Feel free to mention Pajama Guy to your millions of listeners any time.

Also attending, to name but a few, were Rob Long, Cathy Seipp and Jill Stewart.

Whether this was the start of something big, or just a lot of hot air, only time will tell.