Whatever blogs have become, there seems to be universal agreement that the format that made them ubiquitous—the reverse-chronological aggregation accompanied by commentary—is not long for this world, and Mr. Denton's scoop-friendly redesign would seem to be the best evidence of that. In fact, the decline of the blog has come so quickly, one has to wonder whether we ever really liked the medium at all.
"Universal agreement" means, well, that agreement is universal (includes all particulars within a given class). In other words, means nobody disagrees with it. But can that be so? I'm not sure I agree, and because I'm not sure, I can't be said to agree. So that makes agreement at least infinitesimally less than universal.
In his November farewell post, after a five-year stint on the Atlantic blog, Marc Ambinder wrote that it will be a relief to head to the National Journal, where he will feel no compulsion to turn every piece into the opinion of "a web-based personality called 'Marc Ambinder' that people read because it's 'Marc Ambinder,' rather than because it's good or interesting."
This seems a bit disingenuous on Ambinder's part. There are people who read, say, Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman because it's Dowd or Krugman, not because it's good or interesting. People get to like certain writers and their take on things. It's pretty common, Marc. And it predates blogs.
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