Youth Text redux

"Irak" is how Iraq is spelled in French. So it may just mean that a francophone responded to your message.

I fear you have a point about "Bloggers' Corner": they might as well have called it "Amateur Hour".

I didn't mean to say that you thought the whole idea of "Bloggers' Corner" stunk of "big media condescension": I, too, thought the name to be somewhat silly.

But like I said, maybe Adam should put an explanatory note.

I must say this though: I don't think it's so much the NP is recognizing bloggers, as Adam D. is (since he blogs himself) and is single-handedly bringing the NP into looking into our little world.

It's not quite fair to the Post to give Adam Daifallah all the credit, though he's doing good work. I don't know who originally came up with the "Corner" idea, but it was quarterbacked by Natasha Hassan when she was running the comment section. Before that--while Adam D. was still at the NY Sun--the Post took me on, a decision based much more on my weblog than on my print work; there was an early in-house recognition of the emerging medium. That decision, in turn, was enabled and encouraged by Mark Steyn, who, while still at the Post, was an ardent promoter of weblogs, referencing them in print before other tenured journalists had gotten a clue. So this culture of synergy (ugh) has a long history at the Post, in Internet time anyway. "Bloggers' Corner" is just the latest manifestation of it.

Managed to write up a long thing on this, but thought this isn't the place to post it.

Good to know the long history of blog-friendliness at NP, though.