In one of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe books, there’s an observation that the VCR is a time-saving device because it watches TV shows for you; once they’re recorded, you don’t have to bother watching them. Simon Dumenco (“dumenco” means “dumb ass” in some Indo-European languages) rips off this riff and writes a column extending the principle to Tivo and blogs:
The blog thing, especially, was key. Because I didn’t have to read, in long form, the endless pontificating about Tina’s TV debut either (it’s a bit like not even bothering to read book reviews but still being able to talk about books). In the same way I delegated the task of watching Tina’s show to my TiVo, I delegated the task of forming an opinion about it to media-news blogger Jim Romenesko (www.medianews.org) — who, come to think of it, had delegated the task of actually thinking and writing about Tina to the assorted opinion-makers he’d linked to and summarized.
You should at least give credit where it’s due in these cases, as I will to Doc Searls, the peace-mongering gynecologist on whose blog I found Dumenco’s article linked.
And speaking of credit, Professor Randy Barnett on Volokh echoes our take on the Times under Raines, but he’s clever enough to have thought of it on his own, even if he is handicapped by being a libertarian.