Please Pardon My Absence

In the last few years, I've gotten into the habit of writing in my blogs almost every day.

But, lately, as some of you have pointed out in e–mails to me, I have been AWOL. Apparently, people do notice when I'm not writing. Who knew?

So I figured I should offer a brief explanation.

I have an interview for adjunct journalism instructor at the local community college tomorrow morning. I did a phone interview with the top guy in the journalism department last week, and he wants me to come in for an in–person interview, which will include a 15–minute demo lecture on a topic of my choosing.

Anyway, I have been spending the last several days preparing for this. (And, just between you and me, I'm a bit concerned about the lecture. I hope he isn't too strict about the timing, because I keep running about five minutes longer. I've been cutting it and cutting it, but it still runs over!)

But don't you worry. I haven't given up writing. It's just that blog writing has had to take a back seat.

I expect to be writing in my blogs regularly before long so thanks for reading and check back soon!

New Rules for Bloggers

I've been writing for quite awhile about how communications law is evolving in the digital age. This area of communications law is still emerging and it will continue to emerge in the years to come.

Tim Arango writes in the New York Times about one new development that some bloggers will need to know about because it will be effective in a couple of months.

"On Monday, the F.T.C. said it would revise rules about endorsements and testimonials in advertising that had been in place since 1980," Arango writes. "The new regulations are aimed at the rapidly shifting new–media world and how advertisers are using bloggers and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to pitch their wares."

If you write a blog and you review any product, you're going to have to disclose any gifts or payments you receive for your reviews starting Dec. 1.

I've been writing this blog for two years and two other blogs for a year. On a couple of occasions, people have contacted me about their products and asked me to review them on my blogs.

That isn't the purpose of my blogs, and I have responded with polite e–mails in which I have said, in effect, "Thanks, but no thanks." And that has pretty much been all there has been to it. The most I have been offered has been the products themselves — sunglasses, key chains, etc. — and I have turned those offers down.

At some point, though, I may receive a tempting offer. If I accept it — and it is after Dec. 1 — I will have to disclose the details.

This isn't something I anticipate. But I don't know what will happen in the future. And neither does anyone else.

So, if you write a blog, keep this new rule in mind. And keep an eye on Washington. I am certain that more changes are coming.

My 1,000th Post

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This is a personal milestone for me. This is my 1,000th post on this blog.

It all began with a simple post about picking a name for my blog two years ago tomorrow — on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007.

I'm going all Ted Baxter here.

Do you remember Ted Baxter, the pompous anchorman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show? One of the running jokes on the show was the acceptance speech Ted had prepared in anticipation of winning an award — and always had it memorized, ready to recite at the drop of a hat. Oddly, it was the same answer he had prepared for anyone who wanted to interview him for a biographical feature.

"It all began at a 5,000–watt radio station ..." and I believe the fictional station was in Fresno, Calif., but I'm not certain about that. You would think I would remember. I was a big fan of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s.

The joke was that, most of the time, he didn't win, and his speech went undelivered. But it seems to me that Ted finally won the recognition he craved — in an episode in which Walter Cronkite was the guest star.

Anyway, I started writing this blog two years ago. An old friend recommended it to me, and I am grateful he did. But I made a mistake with this blog. I used it to write about anything that came to mind — and it became unwieldy.

So last year, as I approached the first anniversary of the debut of my blog, I decided I needed to be more topical. I had been using this blog to write about a lot of different topics, but last September I decided that I needed to start two other blogs and dedicate them to sports and entertainment.

Then, on Sept. 25, 2008, I announced the creation of two new blogs.

I'm still writing those blogs. When I want to write about football or baseball or horse racing (other sports, too, but those are probably the main ones for me) or, sometimes, the people who tell us about the sports we watch, I write at my Tomato Cans blog. Mostly, I have been writing about football recently, posting my predictions in the weekly college and pro football schedules. In the coming weeks, I'll be writing about the baseball playoffs. And, in the last few weeks, I have posted sports–oriented comedy videos featuring routines by Andy Griffith and George Carlin.

And when I want to write about books or movies or music or TV — or if I want to indulge in some free association — I write at my Birth of a Notion blog.

And that has helped me focus this blog more on current events and history. Sometimes, being a journalist, I write about language.

All three blogs are works in progress, though. My style is still emerging, and there remain some inconsistencies. They probably aren't noticeable to casual readers, but, for someone who spent many years working on newspaper copy desks, it's just part of my DNA to have a signature style that is consistent in all of my blogs.

Anyway, thanks for reading my blogs. I hope you will come back.

The Evolution of News Coverage

I guess you could say that I have some experience in journalism.

I have bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism. I've worked for newspapers and a trade magazine. I've taught reporting and editing to undergrads. I even did some freelance writing for the local paper when I was in high school.

When I was growing up, it seemed to me that newspapers would always be around. But already this year I've seen some newspapers go out of business entirely (e.g., Rocky Mountain News) and others stop printing and go online exclusively (e.g., Seattle Post–Intelligencer). And the ones that are still standing are cutting jobs or hours to try to survive.

In a democracy, it seems to me, there will always be a need for journalists, for people who will cover the news. What is less certain, at this stage, is what form that will take.

The other day, The Editor's Desk blog asked if blogs count as news coverage.

The question was inspired when the author of the blog, Andy Bechtel, did some investigating about allegations of anti–Sarah Palin bias at the New York Times and Los Angeles Times that came up on a segment of "The O'Reilly Factor" — which had been inspired by perceived absence of coverage of David Letterman's remarks about the former vice presidential nominee.

Bechtel reported finding that "each newspaper has covered the Letterman–Palin flap — in blog form, with several posts on several blogs." Thus, Bechtel was prompted to ask his question.

Then he gave his answer. "I think that as journalism expands online and shrinks in print, blogs should be considered a significant piece of a newspaper's coverage plan," Bechtel writes.

I'm inclined to agree. But I guess a lot of things haven't really been clarified yet. A profitable business model for new–age journalism has not emerged yet. Until it does, the future of news coverage will be uncertain.

One thing that does seem to be clear is that blogs are gaining more of a presence with traditional publications. A blog for Time.com, for example, recently asked who will pay for journalism if the journalism business fails. I thought that was a particularly poignant place to ponder that prospect (how's that for alliteration?).

Writing these blogs seems to be a role that is taken on by veteran writers as extensions of their traditional duties at some publications, by young recent college graduates as unique duties at others.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the idea that electronic "citizen journalist/bloggers" can fill the void that is being left by the elimination of daily newspapers, especially those bloggers who will be free to post their writings directly to the publication's website, bypassing the copy desk entirely. That seems to be inviting libel suits and other legal actions aimed at re–defining and re–interpreting communications laws.

But perhaps that is inescapable. Just like the recent transition to digital television, big changes are coming in the news industry. Some news sources — particularly those that provide national and international news — may remain free indefinitely because so many competitors will continue to offer their content at no charge. Those outlets will have to find other sources of revenue.

But, to have access to local news, internet consumers may have to subscribe to an online service. They may not like it, but they may have no choice. If your hometown newspaper is the only news organization providing coverage of your commmunity's school board or city council meetings, charging readers for access to those reports may be the smart thing to do.

That's just a sample of the many issues that will have to be resolved. And the resolutions may be different from one market to the next.

One thing seems clear to me. A democracy will always need a free press, even if that press no longer exists through ink and newsprint.

And even if its online presence is not entirely free.

The Splash Award

I've been given a Splash Award by a fellow blogger, and here are the rules:

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The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring blogs. When you receive this award, you must:

1. Put the logo on your blog/post.


2. Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.


3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.


4. Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.


5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your Splash Award.

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Graciebird, who authors the blog Dreaming in Black and White, gave me this award, and now it is my turn to pick blogs to receive it.

I'd like to start by returning the favor and nominating Graciebird's blog, even though she has already received this award from someone else.

1. For a long time, I've been a fan of old movies, and Dreaming in Black and White reminds me of the enthusiasm I had when I was Graciebird's age and I was discovering all the great films that came along before I was born. Sometimes, I think it was this appreciation for the great writing in many old films that inspired my passion for writing. Graciebird will soon be a college student, and I hope she keeps writing her blog, even when the demands of academia occupy most of her waking hours. The modern world can learn a lot from the movies of a bygone era; Graciebird already has.


2. Back in the days before the internet was a fixture on the American scene, I taught journalism at the University of Oklahoma. One of my students, George Lang, is now the assistant entertainment editor for The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, and one of the things he does in that role is write a blog called StaticBlog. George always seemed to be on the cutting edge of entertainment developments when I knew him at OU, and there were countless times when our roles were reversed. I can't tell you how often I heard of things through George that I had never heard before. He is a talented, learned individual, and I'm glad that he has a job that allows him to share his expertise with the readers in Oklahoma City. But you don't have to live in Oklahoma to benefit from George's knowledge. All you need to do is check out his blog.


3. Dr. Alex Goodall is a lecturer in modern history at the University of York, and he writes a blog I always enjoy reading called A Swift Blow to the Head. It seems I always learn something from what I read there. It makes me wish he had been one of my professors when I was a college student. Given our mutual interests in history and politics, I think we could have had some fascinating discussions.


4. The pastor of my church, Eric Folkerth, is really a talented fellow. I always think it is important for a pastor to give interesting sermons on Sunday mornings, and Eric never fails to deliver. But that isn't his only talent. He is also a gifted musician and, by his own admission, "the most plugged–in guy I know." Few people probably would argue the point. He posts links to audio files of his sermons on Facebook, and he writes a blog called When EF Talks. He doesn't post on his blog as frequently as I would like, because I enjoy reading his writing so much. But whatever he writes is sure to be inspiring, enlightening and entertaining — not unlike his sermons.


5. As a centrist, I appreciate good centrist writing, and one of the best sources for that is The Moderate Voice. I can't say that I communicate directly with the writers of this blog (for that matter, I don't communicate with Dr. Goodall, either), and I don't read it as often as I should, but I learn from it when I do read it.


6. Joseph M. Fasciana became a follower of this blog earlier this year, and, as a result, I've been reading what he writes as a contributor to The Political Punch, which most recently turned its attention to the Kentucky Derby, but it typically examines political issues. There's some good writing to be found on this blog, and that's something I always appreciate, even if I disagree with what is being said.
   
   And I seldom disagree with what is said at The Political Punch.


7. Longtime readers of this blog know that I worked for many years as a copy editor for newspapers. That being the case, it should comes as no surprise that I'm partial to blogs that are written by people with similar experience. Case in point: You Don't Say, a blog written by a fellow named John McIntyre. I'm not referring to the fictional "Trapper John" from the book, movie and TV series "M*A*S*H." I'm referring to a self–described "veteran editor and teacher" who spent several years on the copy desk of the Baltimore Sun. Apparently, Mr. McIntyre recently left the Sun. I don't know all the details, but we all know the difficulties the newspaper industry faces these days, and my guess is that his departure is related to that. Anyway, he wrote a blog when he worked at the Sun, and he is continuing it, at a different web address but under the same name. The original blog typically focused on language usage, and I presume the same will be true of his new endeavor. Considering some of the things I see posted on the internet every day, anyone who writes a blog would benefit from reading what Mr. McIntyre has to say.


8. Twenty years ago, I met a fellow named Kyle when both of us were graduate students at the University of North Texas. In those days, we saw things pretty much eye to eye. Over the years, I guess we've grown somewhat apart, which is a development that I regret, but it's not uncommon. And, frankly, we weren't always on the same page when we were students together. I remember once, when we were in the same journalism class, we were assigned to take a position on an issue, write about it and submit our essays to our professor. The other members of the class acted alone, but Kyle and I decided to do a point–counterpoint on the designated hitter rule. Kyle, at the time, was an American League fan and a defender of the DH. I was (and still am) a National League fan and an opponent of the DH rule. Our essays were mentioned in class by our amused professor, who said we had engaged in a conspiracy (although I don't think it affected our grades). Anyway, earlier this year, Kyle began writing a blog called therapy malaria, which can be about almost anything — whenever Kyle chooses to add something to it. Sometimes he writes about politics, sometimes he writes about sports. I guess his blog is sort of like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates — you never know what you're going to get.


9. Last, but not least, is Wizard of Otin by a fellow who goes by the name of Otin. I guess Otin looks at more blogs than anyone I know, and he has alerted me to the existence of some good ones. Otin seems to enjoy reading blogs that are opinionated, but he tends to write about the humorous angles of things. Sometimes, he gives me a good laugh when I need it — and, in these tough economic times, there are occasions when I really need it! Incidentally, Otin is always adding something to his blog. Recently, he added a chat function, and he and I chatted directly for the first time yesterday. For someone I've never met in person, he's turned into a pretty good friend. Thanks, Otin, and here's your Splash Award.

Well, that's that.

Each of these blogs has something of value to offer, and I hope you visit them and enjoy them.

The Best Line of the Day

Actually, I don't know where this line originated. I just became aware of it while I was reading an entry in the Powerline blog titled, "The Difference Between Obama and Jesus." But Powerline acknowledged picking up the line from Instapundit.com.

Well, given all the suggestions that Barack Obama is "The Messiah" — as well as his problems with his Cabinet appointees, the latest of which is the withdrawal of H. Rodgin Cohen from consideration for Deputy Treasury Secretary — the line is too good not to share with my readers.

It reminds me of my days on newspaper copy desks, when turning a clever phrase into an eye-catching headline seldom meant much in the way of recognition except from my colleagues (although earning their admiration that way always had a certain amount of value for me).

Anyway, I'll keep you in suspense no longer. As Powerline put it, the difference between Obama and Jesus is/was ... "Jesus knew how to build a cabinet."

A tip of the hat to whoever came up with that one.

Distractions

Today, I've been looking at my blogs list on the right-hand side of this blog.

And it occurs to me that, for all the high-minded talk of "change" that was heard during last year's election, this country is still easily distracted by paper tigers — when there are plenty of real tigers ready to devour us in the wink of an eye.

All that has changed is who is being distracted.

In case you hadn't noticed, unemployment is now in double digits in the largest state in the Union.

Gross domestic product shrank by 6.2% in the final quarter of 2008, which was much worse than anticipated.

And, while I know this is getting redundant, the Dow had another triple-digit loss yesterday. It will be just slightly over 7,000 when the market opens on Monday.

The pendulum really seems to have swung on that one. I remember a day about 10 years ago when everyone in my office was talking about the history that had just been made when the stock market cracked 10,000 for the first time. And not long before what is now considered the start of the current recession, it reached its highest level ever.

So there's plenty of bad news for journalists (the ones who still have jobs) to write about. I'll grant you that it may help your morale more to contemplate a paper tiger than to read the bad stuff. But it won't go away, just because you're distracted.

• My friend and former newspaper co-worker, Kyle, who writes the therapymalaria blog, resumed writing his blog today after a four-week absence and chastised those in the "mainstream media" for being "mesmerized" by Republicans and not exercising their responsibilities as public watchdogs.
  
  I was inclined to agree with him, even though I find the phrase "mainstream media" to be a vague and widely (and not always justifiably) applied label — until he concluded that journalists were unable to "wean themselves" from the horse race of a political campaign and, therefore, "[i]t is no wonder newspapers are struggling."
  
  As a former journalist, he ought to know better. Newspapers, like other businesses, are going under because of the crummy economy. The bottom line is advertising revenue. It's not possible to pay a newspaper staff and pay all the other expenses involved in printing a daily publication on 50 cents for each individual copy. Advertising keeps the presses running, and that's been drying up.
  
  Declines in advertising revenue have been well documented, but declining readership doesn't help matters. And, for that, many newspapers deserve plenty of blame for failing to recognize the need to establish a revenue-producing online presence from the very start.
  
  But I'm sure, if you were to talk to the now ex-employees of the now defunct Rocky Mountain News, they would say that speculation about the 2012 presidential campaign had little, if anything, to do with their employer's demise. Likewise, the journalists who lost their jobs in San Antonio and Hartford, Ct., this week most likely would see no connection between the GOP's angst over its 2012 nominee and their own troubles.
  
  And Democrats cannot afford to be smug and continue to refer to it as the mess they inherited. By the time 2012 gets here, the Democrats will be judged on the progress that has been made. The mess belongs to them now.


• In fairness to Kyle, there are newspaper columnists who are obsessing over the 2012 Republican campaign, but most of them seem to be in the centers of political power — Washington and New York — where election speculation has always been part of their work, even in "off" years. Or they are other bloggers. Then again, maybe he and I are reading different sources.
  
  I'm seeing the obsession on the part of bloggers like David Frum, who writes, for The New Majority, about "The Goldwater Myth."
  
  You know you're obsessing when you write about a campaign from 45 years ago and hold it up as a model for bouncing back from the last two elections — especially since the 1964 campaign didn't produce any real political fruit for conservatism for another 16 years.


• J. Bradford DeLong continues to try to make sense of Bobby Jindal's remarks at Grasping Reality With Both Hands. Seems like a losing proposition to me.


• But, for that matter, Jonathan Zasloff wrestles with the same problem at The Reality-Based Community.


• The Blue Indiana blog devotes space to repeating TPM Muckraker's report that Jindal's tale about Hurricane Katrina was a lie.
  
  That's funny. At the time, I thought it was just plain loopy.


• Mary Ann Akers at the Washington Post's The Sleuth blog feels compelled to remind former Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode that he lost the election in November.
  
  Of course, that's somewhat timely. Goode, as she observes, doesn't seem to have gotten the message.


• Meanwhile, Akers' colleague, Chris Cillizza writes, at The Fix, about the top 10 Republican prospects for 2012. That's way ahead of schedule.
  
  Enough already with 2012 — we're only two months into 2009.

And from the Eric Holder "nation of cowards" file (and, I will admit, I wrote about Holder's comments earlier this week) …

• The Arch Pundit blog writes about the "selective outrage about race" that is being shown by Roland Burris' media adviser.


• Politik Ditto, which supposedly is written by a black conservative Democrat, takes former Air America broadcaster Mike Malloy to task for a "racist" joke at Bobby Jindal's expense.
  
  Politik Ditto also criticizes Barnes & Noble for a book display at a Florida store honoring Barack Obama — that included a book about monkeys that B&N says was placed there by a customer.


• Politik Ditto isn't the only black-authored blog that doesn't accept B&N's apology. Black Political Thought does the same thing.
  
  It seems to have replaced the New York Post and its chimpanzee cartoon as a target of racial wrath.
  
  Look, I'm not saying that racial prejudice has been eliminated by Obama's election. It hasn't. But can we cool it on the race card for awhile? I'm starting to sense the same kind of walking-on-eggshells mentality that some people felt during the war on terrorism/Patriot Act period and the hysteria that brought on. This time it's a measure of one's racial tolerance. Last time it was a measure of one's devotion to country, a mass revival of the "America, Love It or Leave It" attitude that I witnessed as a child on a much more modest scale during Vietnam. What will it be next time?
  
  When ordinary people are worried that each word they say or each gesture they make may be misinterpreted as being derogatory to whatever the issue du jour happens to be, something is wrong.
  
  Barnes & Noble has apologized. Even if you find the explanation somewhat fishy, can you be gracious enough to accept the apology?


• Sister Toldjah, meanwhile, is obsessing over "cloth toilet wipes" and instructions about how to use them.


• Tara Lohan touches on the same topic — sorta — in a piece on "America's Love Affair with Really Soft Toilet Paper" at AlterNet.org.


• Meanwhile, Susie Madrak of Crooks and Liars feels moved (so to speak) to agree with The Guardian's assertion that soft toilet paper is "worse than driving Hummers."

Now, I'm not saying these blogs aren't worth reading and their ideas aren't worth discussing/debating.

I'm just saying that there are more important things to deal with right now.

Jindal in the Light of Day

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Words failed Rachel Maddow after Jindal gave his rebuttal.

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Upon reviewing the reactions to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican response to Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last night, it seems that many bloggers and columnists share my assessment — even if my opinion was immediate and may not have allowed time for sufficient reflection.

I don't know if Obama's speech was a "home run," as Black Political Thought wrote. Nor would I go to the extent of labeling Jindal's remarks either "choppy" or a "disgrace" — although his delivery did leave a lot to be desired.

At best, though, I would agree with Frank James, of the conservative Chicago Tribune, who observed that the speech had its "jarring moments" — in particular the reference to Hurricane Katrina.

I'm sure Katrina has special relevance for people in Louisiana — but it reminds the rest of us of one of the lowest moments of the Bush presidency. Thus, even if Jindal had a worthwhile point to make — and I'm not sure he did — mentioning Hurricane Katrina is not the best sales pitch for Republican-style leadership during a crisis.

Katrina certainly wasn't funny. But Jason Linkins, at Huffington Post, found something funny to say about Jindal's speech. He saw an "uncanny" resemblance between Jindal and Kenneth the page from NBC's comedy, "30 Rock" — which may be appropriate, since Tina Fey, who skewered Sarah Palin so well on "Saturday Night Live" last fall, is the creator, executive producer and star of the show.

Linkins didn't write much. He let two video clips, one of Jindal and one of the Kenneth character, do his talking for him — and pretty eloquently, too, I might add.

Sam Stein reported for Huffington Post that pundits on both ends of the political spectrum criticized the speech. The verdict, Stein wrote, was that Jindal "came up short" on the "three hurdles" he had to clear in what was, admittedly, a "thankless" assignment — responding to Obama's speech.

Those hurdles, Stein said, were

• "to show that he could handle the national spotlight,


• "[to] present himself as a fresh face of the Republican Party, and


• "[to] stand up to the current president oratorically."

Responses from both sides, Stein wrote, were "decidedly harsh: 'amateurish,' 'laughable' and, most commonly, 'a missed opportunity.' "

Andy Barr of Politico.com reported that Jindal was "panned" by a variety of observers, including NPR's Juan Williams, Fortune magazine's Nina Easton and conservative RedState blog's Erick Erickson (who found fault with Jindal's delivery more than his message).

Perhaps more significantly, Barr wrote that the reaction from University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato (whose accuracy in predicting the 2008 election was almost 100% on target) was that "it's difficult to imagine him now as Obama's 2012 opponent" — a role for which many Republicans clearly were hoping he would be mentioned after his national debut last night.

But, as Sabato observed, Jindal still needs "a lot more seasoning" before he'll be ready for that role.

And John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at California's Claremont McKenna College, may have had the best assessment of Jindal — "[H]e has a lot of time to improve his delivery. In the year 2040 he will still be younger than McCain was in 2008."

Still, Obama's speech was not without its drawbacks as well.

It is true that the crisis facing the country was not of his making, that he inherited it from his predecessor, and it doesn't hurt to remind people of that fact at this point.

But Obama has now been president for more than a month. It is his mess to deal with now. The American people waited patiently through the months of transition (and simultaneous inaction by the lame duck president) while hundreds of thousands more jobs were lost. With the new president now in charge, the expectations are high.

As both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton discovered in their first years in office, even a supportive public can soon turn on a president who doesn't deliver quickly. And regaining the lost momentum can be awkward and time consuming.

New Blogs in a New Year

Today, as we mark the beginning of a new year, I want to direct my regular readers' attention to a couple of blogs authored by two of my friends.

One of them, Publick Occurrences, is compiled from news sources throughout the internet by an old friend of mine, Doug. We practically grew up together. Graduated from high school together. Attended college together.

Doug has been compiling this blog for a few months now. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know, and he is often ahead of the curve on news topics.

If you're reading this in the Western Hemisphere, take a look at his blog in the mornings. Doug often uncovers his best news leads while people in this part of the world are asleep. If you wait until the afternoon to read his blog, the rest of the world may have caught up with him.

The other blog, therapy malaria, is being launched today by a friend of mine named Kyle. I've known Kyle about half as long as I've known Doug — nevertheless, Kyle and I have been friends for just about 20 years. We worked at a newspaper together while we were both pursuing our master's degrees in journalism.

Today, he lives on the East Coast. We're both out of the newspaper business — but neither of us, it seems, ever got our fill of writing.

Anyway, Kyle promises to write a lot about current events — as well as more personal topics. He's one of the most engaging writers I know, and I will be following his posts with interest.

As always, you can find links to these and other blogs on the right-hand side of my blog.

Ch- ch- ch- changes

I guess it was bound to come to this.

I’ve been writing a blog, Freedom Writing, for nearly one year.

I’ve enjoyed writing it, but it’s become a catch-all kind of blog.

You see, I have many interests, and it’s been hard to confine them to a single blog.

I guess the people who have known me all my life would tell you that I’ve always been interested in current events and politics.

And, in fact, I would estimate that the majority of my posts in the last year have been about current events and politics.

But I’ve also used my blog to write about other things that interest me — sports, movies, TV, music.

Obviously, there is some overlapping between subjects from time to time. In fact, in the last week or so, about half of my posts on this blog have dealt with sports or music, and the rest have dealt with current events.

But I’d like to be more topical.

So, starting today, I’m launching two new blogs.

My sports blog will be called Tomato Cans. (If you don't understand the name, I have a brief explanation posted at the blog.)

My entertainment blog will be called Birth of a Notion. That's a play on the name of one of the original blockbuster silent movies, "Birth of a Nation," which was quite an achievement in its day. It was remarkably innovative when it was released in 1915, although it has become controversial as the years have gone by for its sympathetic and fallacious treatment of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.

But, when one is talking about the film "Birth of a Nation," one would be well advised to remember the words of film critic Roger Ebert: "'Birth of a Nation' is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s 'Triumph of the Will,' it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil."

And, above all else, I believe a blog, whether it's about movies or sports or current events, should be a learning experience — for both the person who reads it and the person who creates it.

My Freedom Writing blog will remain active. I will post new articles on current events and politics, and all the entries I’ve posted in the last year will remain in its archive.

I still plan to do some blog writing most days, but my entries may not be in the same blog from one day to the next.

If my post relates to sports, I’ll write in Tomato Cans.

And if my post relates to movies or TV or books or music — or entertainment in general — I’ll write in Birth of a Notion.

Later on, an additional blog or two may be needed. I’ll address that need if it comes up.

Clearly, this will be a work in progress, as I decide which blog to use under which circumstances.

For example, comedian George Carlin died earlier this year.

In the event that something similar happens, I will enter my initial blog post at Freedom Writing.

But if that person is featured in a CD or a movie that is released after his/her death — and if I decide to write about it — my blog post will appear in Birth of a Notion.

Similarly, if someone from the sports world dies, I’ll write about it first in Freedom Writing.

After that, if I mention that person in a sports-related context, it will appear in my Tomato Cans blog.

I encourage my regular readers to support these two new blogs.