Are market forces emerging for pundits?
I presented my paper on public intellectuals and the blogosphere earlier today, and received some very useful feedback. One particularly interesting point in response to my paper is that while my paper focused on bloggers as public intellectuals, it might be the case that bloggers serve an even greater good by engaging in quality control ...
I presented my paper on public intellectuals and the blogosphere earlier today, and received some very useful feedback. One particularly interesting point in response to my paper is that while my paper focused on bloggers as public intellectuals, it might be the case that bloggers serve an even greater good by engaging in quality control of other public intellectuals. In Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, Richard Posner argued that one reason for the decline was that increased demand for pontificators was not matched by any market discipline for poor quality. Even if public intellectuals and pundit royally screw up, the public is sufficiently disinterested and disengaged for it not to matter. To some extent, blogs and YouTube are changing this. Consider the following as a test case. Here's a YouTube clip currently making the rounds of conservative radio host Kevin James on Hardball: Now if James had been that stupid and only those watching MSNBC live had caught it, I'm not sure it would have mattered all that much. Given the proliferation of this clip on the blogs, however, it can have two effects. First, that many more people see James acting like an ill-informed boob. Which means that the odds of him getting booked on prestige shows shrinks. Second, as much as Hardball's producers like the proliferation of the clip, I'm not sure how many of these they want to see cropping up. As Josh Patashnik points out on The Plank: [I]t's not like this reflects very well on Chris Matthews, either. Why is he inviting such an obnoxious moron onto his show? There are plenty of people who could represent the conservative position here with some intelligence and class. Why not try to schedule them? See Michael Brendan Dougherty for a kindred argument. Of course, if James is asked back onto Hardball or other similar venues after this episode, then I'm wrong.
I presented my paper on public intellectuals and the blogosphere earlier today, and received some very useful feedback. One particularly interesting point in response to my paper is that while my paper focused on bloggers as public intellectuals, it might be the case that bloggers serve an even greater good by engaging in quality control of other public intellectuals. In Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, Richard Posner argued that one reason for the decline was that increased demand for pontificators was not matched by any market discipline for poor quality. Even if public intellectuals and pundit royally screw up, the public is sufficiently disinterested and disengaged for it not to matter. To some extent, blogs and YouTube are changing this. Consider the following as a test case. Here’s a YouTube clip currently making the rounds of conservative radio host Kevin James on Hardball:
Now if James had been that stupid and only those watching MSNBC live had caught it, I’m not sure it would have mattered all that much. Given the proliferation of this clip on the blogs, however, it can have two effects. First, that many more people see James acting like an ill-informed boob. Which means that the odds of him getting booked on prestige shows shrinks. Second, as much as Hardball‘s producers like the proliferation of the clip, I’m not sure how many of these they want to see cropping up. As Josh Patashnik points out on The Plank:
[I]t’s not like this reflects very well on Chris Matthews, either. Why is he inviting such an obnoxious moron onto his show? There are plenty of people who could represent the conservative position here with some intelligence and class. Why not try to schedule them?
See Michael Brendan Dougherty for a kindred argument. Of course, if James is asked back onto Hardball or other similar venues after this episode, then I’m wrong.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
More from Foreign Policy

Saudi-Iranian Détente Is a Wake-Up Call for America
The peace plan is a big deal—and it’s no accident that China brokered it.

The U.S.-Israel Relationship No Longer Makes Sense
If Israel and its supporters want the country to continue receiving U.S. largesse, they will need to come up with a new narrative.

Putin Is Trapped in the Sunk-Cost Fallacy of War
Moscow is grasping for meaning in a meaningless invasion.

How China’s Saudi-Iran Deal Can Serve U.S. Interests
And why there’s less to Beijing’s diplomatic breakthrough than meets the eye.