Bloggers go meta

The MSM (and good for you if you don't know what the acronym stands for) is often criticized for its self-obsessed navel gazing (much of which, like the scrutiny journalists were subjected to for taking the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction largely at face value, is actually quite healthy).

At times, the main stream media's (now you know) preoccupation with itself gets so meta people just want to get their information from straight-talking sources they can trust: Bloggers!

Of course, bloggers are just as vulnerable to the pitfalls of meta (the bottomless pit of debate that revolves not around the facts and issues of the day, but from whence they came and how they are presented).

Case in point: the ongoing dialogue between BloodhoundBlog and The Real Estate Weenie.

Now you've probably heard of BloodhoundBlog, but you may not be aware of The Real Estate Weenie, which apparently did not have an audience until BloodhoundBlog took it to task.

As far as I can tell, Teresa Boardman at St. Paul Real Estate Blog was only joking when she announced the launch of Real Estate Weenie, a new blog that would showcase all the bad advice that's offered to real estate professionals and consumers on blogs.

Greg Swann at BloodhoundBlog thought that was pretty mean spirited, so he decided to give The Real Estate Weenie Bloodhound's Cheez-Whiz award, which is Swann's own endeavor in this area (exposing the fools of the world to the bright light of reason). Stay with me, I told you this was going to be meta.

Swann asked to be listed on Boardman's "Weenie roll" of questionable blogs but Boardman, sounding genuinely cranky about it, refused.

Boardman says that thanks to all the attention she's getting now -- more than 500 visits -- she's actually going to follow through with the blog. Her latest post on Weenie is about a competitor, Bonnie Erickson, who wrote on her blog, Real Estate Snippets, about a horrible trip to a dentist Boardman had referred her to.

Wait -- it gets meta, meta, meta. On closer examination, it seems Boardman is not making fun of Erickson. Erickson is guest blogging on Weenie, making fun of Boardman.

Now, how much do you want to bet that Swann, Boardman and Erickson did all of this for fun and are just waiting to see who is metastupid enough to blog about it?

Well, it's Friday, and I needed a break from a 188-page study analyzing how many ARM loans are going to go into foreclosure in the next six years.

--Matt Carter, Inman News

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