Missouri reporter: Our blogs are better than Illinois' blogs

Diane of Respublica, a Collinsville, IL blogger, was faithfully following my Chicago Marathon photoblogging. Thanks, Diane.

Yesterday, she had an excellent post about a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about blogging.

Jo Mannies of the Post-Dispatch, is well, clueless. This is what Respublica wrote--with quotes from Mannies in bold--about that article:

Mannies also discounted Illinois bloggers by writing: "Illinois hasn't seen such growth. In fact, one of the most active bloggers tracking Southern Illinois politics, "archpundit.com," is based in Missouri." This is just such baloney, if anything Illinois in general and Southern Illinois in particular, has seen a phenomenal growth of blog sites watching state and local politics. I can name names, but it is just as easy for a reader to look at my right sidebar under "Illinois Blogs" and those links are just a drop in the bucket. Illinois bloggers are familiar with each other and supportive of each other, linking stories and following up with encouragement and disagreement.

The funniest statement in the article is this from Mannies' media expert: "it will increasingly become the job of traditional journalists to "separate the wheat from the chaff" that's floated on blogs." Gosh, that is what blogs have been doing a lot of the time to "traditional journalists".

Hey, I could name a at least a dozen excellent Illinois blogs, and name an equal number of Illinois issues that have been brought forth into the public eye by Illinois bloggers.

Jo Mannies: What a maroon.