What a blog is all about ... and what it isn't

When I decided to start this blog, I sent an email to several friends that I had started this blog. Many of them were kind enough to send a note back saying they will be reading. But one old pal Will sent me a note with a harsh reminder.

Will observed the problem with blogs is everybody opines when (in his view) what is needed is some sharp reporting on issues not always covered in the mainstream media.

He's right, of course. There are so many issues that need to get serious coverage by the media that get overlooked. If you watched cable the past two days, the news was basically two items:

1) The political results in Iowa and what might happen next week in New Hampshire.

2) Britney Spears

In both cases, there has been a lot of punditry and speculation. Some of it is informed but most of it was just rough guesses. My only experience with New Hampshire was a brief trip to the largest liquor store I have ever seen. I have spent a little more time in Iowa on business over the years but can't tell you much about the people there. But you, good reader, and I knew as much as the suits that were reporting from there.

The Spears case is a sad one and deserves thoughts at another time. Who the hell really knows just what this girl has been doing and why she ended up in the hospital. But Will's point is pertinent here: there has been little indepth reporting on what is causing Spears' problems and how they can be solved. No, the pictures have been of her husband canoodling with some bimbo on New Year's Eve and a few shots of Spears getting wheeled into the hospital. Nowhere in this reporting has been this observation: There are two very young kids who are badly in need of parental guidance and love and aren't getting it. Just what is going to happen to them and how are they going to have any chance of living a normal life? I suspect this is the kind of reporting Will is looking for.

There is hope on the reporting horizon. In today's Star Tribune, there is a front page story about the straining economy pushing up the jobless rate. It's indepth and offers good information. Inside is a terrific story about the director of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington spending $48,000 of museum funds to commission a portrait of himself. We need to know more of that kind of stuff and less about Britney.

In the Pioneer Press, there is a story about two Minnesota state workers (who have since been fired) who apparently snooped around driver's records without permission. Again, here is where Will's thesis gets a test: we don't know the names of these miscreants or just what the hell they were up to. But we need to find out everything. We paid these folks' salaries. Sorry, political Brit fans, this kind of information is more important.

Unfortunately, this is not the kind of stuff you will normally find in blogs such as this. Hopefully, what you will find is something to give you pause. If you're interested in the subject du jour, it may make you want to find out more. There will also be times where all I intend to do is attempt to amuse you with a tale of life in the Midwest. Your comments will tell me if I am on the right path.

The indepth reporting will have to be left to somebody else. There is some good work being done but we must push for more of it. Then people like me can spend time writing about the important things like why dogs do phantom pees and the problems involved when a happily married couple tries to paint a house together. But that's for another blog.