Silentfirecracker

Columnists in Local Politics November 9, 2011

If you go on the internet today, you will find more people’s opinions (especially on politics) than you would porn.

For the most part, bloggers hear something, write about it for about a sentence, then spend five pages telling people what they think. I would like to link you to some examples, but searching for something so widespread my end up crashing my computer.

We need to hold our columnists to a higher standard then this, and for the most part I think they are doing a good job, especially in publications like the NY Times and the Daily News.

The NY Times has a lot of very well written opinion pieces in their paper. They have columns about international and national stories that are well researched. Unfortunately, I don’t care about most of these topics. Luckily, they realized this delema and have a section of their online paper called City Room, which has more local news, but it isn’t too much of column section.

In the last month, you could go on City Room and read about Occupy Wall Street or what the Mayor is doing. I want to say that I have one person that I follow in this paper, but I can’t name a single writer/ blogger/ columnist/ whatever other name you want to call them. In the last week, Kate Taylor has written an article about the Mayor, but their wasn’t much of an opinion piece.

The problem I have with City Room is that their Government & Politics section is not typically updated daily, unless there is some major breaking news. In the world we live in now, people are used to getting new information ASAP. We are like hungry information vampires, and we will attack if you don’t give us information.

'Give us your information!"

The Daily News has a better section, because they have more interesting topics. I used to read Elizabeth Benjamin, but she has left the paper a while back. There is also Celeste Katz, who writes good articles. Most of their columnists are like the Times, because they write about topics of national importance, but I think the News have more articles about local politics.

My big issue with both papers is that they aren’t local enough for me. We not only want to know what is happening every minute, we want to know what is happening in our neighborhood, and down the street. Publications like the NY Times and Daily News focus on the whole city, and A LOT about Manhattan. Since I don’t live by Wall Street, this doesn’t suit me very well.

My alternative is Sheepsheadbites. They cover various topics and Ned Burke, the founder of the site, gives his opinions on the politics in the neighborhood in a good amount of the articles, while also listing the facts. He is also neutral, so I can respect his opinion, since he may love a politician one day, and despise him the next.  The blog is so much more then politics, but every article keeps me entertained.

Since I love politics, I have to mention Room 8, which was almost like a bible to me a few years ago. Room 8 is interesting, but usually when there is an election going on. There are 2 main bloggers on that site. One is Rock Hackshaw, who tends to publish an article and then ask questions. This has gotten him into to trouble A LOT. He tends to start rumors, but I think it is unintentional. His sources are out of the game “telephone”, and by the time something comes out in print, names, events, facts, and any kind of details have been changed so much, that it’s hard to say what is true and what is not. Don’t get me wrong, I will still read him whenever I have a chance.

I have to give a shout out to Gatemouth on Room 8, because his articles are factually the polar opposite to Rock’s stuff. His articles are full of facts and honest opinions, but sometimes they are long and I move on to something else.

Long story short: There are some good political blogs out there, but it maybe difficult to find one that would cover your interests if you are looking for local politics.