Media: Peoria’s bloggers are kicking ass, taking names

Rich Miller has some kind words to say about Peoria Pundit (and less kind words for the Journal Star) in his most recent syndicated newspaper column.

I liked this line:

Peoria probably has more political bloggers per capita than anywhere in the state.

Finally, there’s something about Peoria that isn’t lagging 10-20 years behind the rest of the world! Seriously, if Peorians are blogging in larger than normal rates, we do, it’s because we need to, for the reasons outlined in Rich’s fine column.

Look at the “Peoria Bloggers” and “Blog Peoria members” sections of my blogroll. There are too many of them to keep up. Topics range from cats and dogs to the big issues of the day. They all have some value. I highly recommend Peoria Chronicle, PeoriaIllinoisan and Knight in Dragonland.

As proud as I am about Peoria Pundit’s relative success, I am more proud for having done my small part in encouraging other Peoria-area residents to start blogging.

The Founding Fathers gave us freedom of the press. But the truism over the past two centuries has been that freedom of the press belongs to the rich people who own the presses. Not anymore. The Internet (combined with blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress and Movable Type) have given freedom of the press to everyone. There are homeless unemployed people who have blogs that they regularly maintain.

And THAT, my friends, is what citizen journalism is: A promise made by the Founding Fathers being kept. When I started this thing — six years ago, come January — pundit blogging was derided as a fad, like citizen band radio. Individual blogs come and go. But do these idiots really think that blogging itself is going to go away? Do they think the public at large will get tired of having a voice in politics? Do they think we are all going to stop complaining about corporate-minded media that’s more interested in stockholders’ profits than in fulfilling the promise of the 1st Amendment?

I may or may not being doing this 20 years from now, but I absolutely am sure SOMEONE will be doing it. There already are DOZENS of people doing it, right here in Peoria. We’re not going away. The media and the government (two institutions that feed on each other) is simply going to have to change, because the citizen journalists won’t allow the status quo to remain unchallenged.

UPDATE: Link corrected.