Despite his antiquity, and the stale outlet for which Monroe blogs (Atlanta Magazine), Monroe’s politically charged blogs at his Peachtree Screed are the edgiest and most irreverent in the state. Sometimes he’s downright mean, but his take on the transportation problems, sprawl, and GOP power run amok are always right.

Dry Ink: You’ve got decades of experience as a reporter and editor, and now you’re blogging. Do you consider blogging to be journalism? How come?

Doug Monroe: First of all, I’m not the world’s oldest blogger. John Sugg at Creative Loafing is a good six months older than I am. And, yes, of course I consider some blogging to be journalism. It doesn’t matter where journalism is published: a newspaper, a radio station, a website, a podcast. Journalism is journalism. Content is content. I also think a lot of what passes for journalism isn’t journalism at all. Was Judith Miller’s coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War for the New York Times journalism or was it raw Bush propaganda? I’d opt for the latter.

Many bloggers commit actual journalism. One of the best is Josh Marshall: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com. His journalism broke the story of the U.S. Attorneys scandal. But Kevin Drum, who does Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog points out in Mother Jones that bloggers are very dependent on the big news-gathering staffs of the major media. He contends, and I agree with him, that blogging will not replace the mainstream media, but will complement it intelligently. He says blogs and MSM are symbiotic and that when the dailies go, blogs will go with them.

DI: Why are traditional print publications dying, besides the fact that they are boring and stupid?

DM: The media surrendered their traditional watchdog role when they became shills for the lies of George W. Bush. It was like willingly having their souls removed. It was corporate cowardice on a grand scale and they’ll never recover from it. Bill Moyers nailed them for it recently.
Beyond that, many newspapers are crumbling because of the pressures investors are putting on them to cut costs. It’s part of what corporate control has done to America, particularly during the Bush years. In Atlanta, the AJC is scrambling to reinvent itself because it is hemorrhaging readers. The paper has gotten rid of a lot of older writers and editors and is torturing their remaining staff. I understand the Human Resources department has been imported from Abu Ghraib. And, yes, the AJC can really be boring and stupid. It can also produce some first-rate journalism. Their new Internet-oriented strategy sounds sort of incoherent. I still find the AJC Web page to be mysteriously hard to use.

DI: As you know, even the alternative press hasn’t successfully transitioned into the blogosphere either. Are they stupid and boring too?

DM: Have you seen the site http://altweeklydeathwatch.blogspot.com/? Most people aren’t aware that the alternative press, on the national level, is changing faster than the traditional media. The once-great Village Voice has been gutted of its traditional liberal sensibilities by its new owners. There’s a lot of consolidation and trauma in the alt-weeklies because their sex ads are going to the Internet. As for Creative Loafing, I used to work there and think they do some extremely compelling journalism. So, they’re not boring. They’ve been screwing around with the Internet for a couple of years without coming up with a coherent formula. I don’t understand why they have “Bad Habits” and “Fresh Loaf” as separate blogs. I don’t know why a stranger files sports blurbs from time to time. But CL recently hired Andisheh Nouraee full-time, which is a very promising sign. Andy gets it.

DI: Can you blog and surf porn at the same time?

DM: I reckon so. But I’ve reached the point where I find porn to be spiritually debilitating. It’s like watching a snuff film. So, count me out of that shit. Call me old-fashioned.

DI: What’s one thing media companies need to do immediately, whether it’s web-based or print, to regain their vitality?

DM: Good old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting and spellbinding storytelling are still the best medicine. I’d like to see the AJC embrace Atlanta’s vibrant blogging community more. Right now, they snub it to some extent. I’d like to see Creative Loafing get a more focused Internet strategy. I think it’s important for media companies to turn the keys to their web operations over to people who have a sense of humor and have fun with this stuff as well as understand the technology and its potential. Like Andisheh.

DI: What blogs do you read?

DM: Even though I consider myself a liberal, I read Peach Pundit because they keep it hopping with state government news. The other blogs I read regularly include:
Political Insider: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/.
Tom Baxter’s leaving and the paper is making Jim Galloway re-apply for his job. Can you believe that? What assholes the newspapers managers are. Jeez.
Drifting through the Grift: http://griftdrift.blogspot.com/. Its proprietor, James Williams, is a very strong and passionate reporter and writer. His blog bounces between the serious and the zany with a personal touch. I also really enjoy SpaceyGracey Review: http://spaceygreview.blogspot.com/, where Grayson Daughters is really having fun with the technology.
Blog for Democracy: http://www.blogfordemocracy.org/
Tondee’s Tavern: http://www.tondeestavern.com/frontPage.do
Atlanta Public Affairs: http://atlantapublicaffairs.blogspot.com/
Radical Georgia Moderate http://www.radicalgeorgiamoderate.org/
Liberal Lucidity: http://www.liberallucidity.blogspot.com/
Cracker Squire: http://www.crackersquire.blogspot.com/
Dana Blankenhorn: http://www.voic.us/danablankenhorn/1685/georgia_democrats_go_missing
Georgia Women Vote: http://georgiawomenvote.blogspot.com/
Good Will Hinton: http://www.goodwillhinton.com/
Political Vine: http://politicalvine.com/politicalrumors/index.php
Creative Loafing’s Fresh Loaf: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf
John Sugg: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/johnsugg/
Jason Pye: http://www.jasonpye.com/blog/
But perhaps my favorite Georgia blog is my friend William Edgar Boggan’s Kronikles of Kakkania http://kakkania.typepad.com/. Ed is a socialist from Mississippi and it shows.

Nationally, I read:
Atrios http://www.atrios.blogspot.com/
Hullabaloo http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
Washington Monthly http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
Talking Points Memo http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Andrew Sullivan http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/
Global Guerillas http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/
And James Howard Kunstler’s Clusterfuck Nation http://www.kunstler.com/

As for podcasts, I absolutely love Wilson R. Smith’s “What is Goin’ On?” radio show
http://www.whatisgoinon.com/ from Lyons, Ga. He’s by far the best radio interviewer in the state. The Georgia Podcast Network: http://www.gapodcastnetwork.com/ is really good, as well.

And, of course, Dry Ink is fabulous, baby.

DI: By your estimation, in which year we will be able to download sandwiches from the World Wide Web?

DM: In the year 2525, if man is still alive.