Kowabunga

This is another entry of the "why am I not surprised?" There is a movement amongst the bloggers, predominantly the leftie bloggers to unionize the blogosphere. Say what? Unionize bloggers? They've got to be kidding.

It isn't surprising that this movement originated with the left-wingnuts who think that everything has to be controlled and organized according to whatever they determine is "best."

If you sense that I would be against unionizing bloggers, then you are right. Most people who blog, myself included, do so for fun, not for profit. Those pushing for a union are looking at it as a means to get things like health benefits and payment for their work, which means that if they are into it for those reasons, they haven't figured out how to make money at it yet. (I'm not in this for the money. as for my cafepress site, well, that's a different story.)

From Yahoo News:

"I think people have just gotten to the point where people outside the blogosphere understand the value of what it is that we do on the progressive side," said Susie Madrak, the author of Suburban Guerilla blog, who is active in the union campaign. "And I think they feel a little more entitled to ask for something now."

Let's see, on the progressive side, they are pushing the Democratic Party further to the left and giving America candidates like Howard Dean and Barack Obama. And they feel entitled to something? What?

Meanwhile, the article points out that conservative bloggers are not exactly thrilled with the idea of a blogger's union.

"The reason I like blogging is that it's very anarchistic. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and oh my God, you're not going to tell me what to do," said Curt Hopkins, the founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

"The blogosphere is such a weird term and such a weird idea. It's anyone who wants to do it," Hopkins said. "There's absolutely no commonality there. How will they find a commonality to go on? I think it's doomed to failure on any sort of large scale."

Hopkins has some good points. Whether or not it will prevent the left from seizing control of the blogosphere and forcing standards on bloogers through an organized union is debatable. Hopefully he is right.

Mark Noonan, an editor at Blogs for Bush and a senior writer at GOP Bloggers, said he worries that a blogger union would undermine the freewheeling nature of the blogosphere, regardless of its political composition.

"We just go out there and write what is on our mind, damn the critics," he said. "To make a union is to start to provide a firm structure for the blogosphere and that would merely make the blogosphere a junior-league (mainstream media). ... Get us a union and other 'professional' organizations and we'll start to be conformist and we'll start to be just another special interest."

I am familiar with Noonan and his work on both of his blogs. He nails it on the head when bloggers sit down and write an article or opinion piece for their blogs. We do this because we want to express our views, not because we expect to make money. We have a constitution right to express our opinions and the blogosphere has become the best means to get our opinions out to the public.

I don't know what the net result of unionizing bloggers will have on the 'Net, but I suspect it will be anything but good when it comes to free speech.

Tags:

Bloggers Union