Daniel Ruth was/is a great columnist. I still don’t understand why the Tampa Tribune let him go. I have to believe his dismissal had more to do with the Trib, than with Ruth. So it was welcome news when the St. Petersburg Times announced that it was poaching Ruth from the Tribune/unemployment line. Ruth’s once-a-week column is often funny, occasionally hilarious and always insightful.
Daniel Ruth is a terrible blogger. I don’t know why he doesn’t pull down his all but dormant Ruthington Post. Or let it stay up as yet another example of a professional journalist unable to make a successful transition to new media.
“But I thought blogging would be so easy.”
The reason why Ruth deserves the blogosphere’s particular scorn is his smug attitude toward new media.
In a July 20 post (Rules, we don’t need no stinkin’ rules) written not long after he cobbled together his blog, Ruth wrote an invective of several bloggers (me among them) who welcomed him to the blogosphere with a few helpful suggestions on how to make the transition from traditional to new media. Ruth dismissed any such assistance:
It has never occured to me blogofying is answerable to some star chamber of folks sitting around in their underwear sucking on a Blatz, deciding who is and who isn’t pledging proper fealty and/or obsequiousness to this medium. I don’t view this form as a collective gaggle of peasants with pitchforks…
…In the meantime, I’ll blog my way and you can blog yours…
…I’m really not interested in becoming part of some sort of cyber community.
After he wrote all that, I was expecting Ruth to make a real run at being a successful blogger. Unfortunately, a few months later, Ruth suffered a heart attack. He hasn’t posted much since then. Still, he has enough time and energy to write his once-a-week column. You’d think that smart-ass could post something on his blog.
So I’ll call Ruth out: Where you at, Dan? In your last post, on August 16, you wrote, “I’ll try to post with greater regularity.”
Maybe this bloggin’ thing ain’t as easy as it looks.
