… which has Keller’s response to Jarvis’ request for a summit of some sort between the New York Times and bloggers, I must say I agree with Bill ^[1](disclosure: I am friends with both men). Why the NYT and why some sub-set of bloggers? We are all part of some vast and rapidly changing dynamic with (and here I agree with Keller again) no easily foreseen conclusion. Putting together some specific group of supposed adversaries in a conference room off Times Square (or anywhere) to resolve this for millions doesn’t seem particularly democratic to me.

Further, while the New York Times is obviously a great newspaper, arguably the greatest, I think it is demeaning for bloggers to curry their favor… or anyone else’s for that matter. [Hey, schmuck, they review your books!-ed. Easy, easy.] Yes, I find the coverage of blogs in the Times often tendentious, as it is elsewhere. But I regard that as part of the ongoing Class Struggle, which I quoted so frequently during my marxist days. I would love to share bagels with Bill or Jeff on any occasion, but as for a formal confrontation between bloggers and “elite media,” the only bagel I’m interested in is Hegel (as in dialectic).

UPDATE: Austin Bay ^[2] puts it in a larger context.