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Betty Hall: A Blue Hampshire Special Interview | 14 comments
Clarification for new readers - maybe old readers too (4.00 / 1)
The question of "what is the voice of Blue Hampshire" or the voice of another blog is about equivalent to: what is the voice of the Keene Sentinel or the New York Times.

These newspapers have three voices speaking in any issue:

  • The paper itself, in editorials
  • Columnists recruited by the paper, in opinion page and op-ed pieces. These columnists are often selected because they can be provocative, and do not represent the "voice of the paper"
  • The readership, in Letters to the Editor. These letters may or may not focus on subjects the paper has covered, and represent the views of the individual readers, with no particular relationship to the paper's view.

Here and on similar blogs, most of the diaries are the equivalent of Letters to the Editor.

The front-page contributors - currently Mike Hoefer, Susan Bruce, and I - are rough analogs to the columnists.

The founders / owners, Dean and Laura, usually also write as columnists: speaking their own views without claiming that they speak for the site. But occasionally, sometimes without formally saying so, they will speak as the Voice of Blue Hampshire (speaking ex cathedra, to be pontifically pretentious). Recently Dean posted a notice and memorial of another New Hampshire death in Iraq and closed the front-page diary to comments. That was the voice of Blue Hampshire.

Very often the Letters section contains some of the most compelling and insightful writing - that's true in The Atlantic these days. But they don't constitute the definitive "voice" of the publication or blog.

And to clarify or confuse: I am writing this as a regular reader and participant - not as a front-pager, and not as the "voice of Blue Hampshire." I believe, based on decades of engaging in public dialog in different media, that this summary is accurate and useful. But it has no Good Housekeeping stamp to make it Blue Hampshire policy right now.

My clarification (4.00 / 1)

This was a citizen journalist interview for BH. Not a Letter to the Editor. That's why the questions say BH instead of NH Ex-pat. This is the same format I use for Green Mountain Daily when I do the same kind of interviews. Hope that clarifies things. BTW, elwood... did you ever get my e-mail?

"Seventy percent of Americans want our troops out of Iraq and two pro-war candidates win the NH Primary. If that doesn't tell you how f-ed up the system is, what does?"

- Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

[ Parent | ]
"speaking ex cathedra, to be pontifically pretentious" (4.00 / 2)
Considering the number of people in the ranks of BH contributors who enjoy exercising their knowledge of Latin (myself included), I think we passed the threshold of being pretentious long ago.  It doesn't bother me, heh.
[ Parent | ]
I blame myself. (0.00 / 0)
This is just the sort of thing we should be clarifying in the "Getting Started" page.

I've been making a list of edits/additions to that page, and I'll add some language making clear some guidelines about this topic to that.

To speak very broadly, only the writing of Laura, me and the "front pagers" could be said to be as from "Blue Hampshire" as far as the media is concerned when referencing it.  The work of others (quite often much more compelling than our stuff) should be referenced as something along the lines by media as "a blog post on Blue Hampshire by user XXXX".

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.

[ Parent | ]
"I blame myself." - I agree. What the hell, Dean? (0.00 / 0)
Just kidding.
[ Parent | ]
Betty Hall: A Blue Hampshire Special Interview | 14 comments
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