TIPS FOR SURVIVING A BLOG WAR. I don’t have any particular interest in getting further into the substance of the dispute between Jon Chait and innumerable bloggers, since I had what I have to say about Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont yesterday, but there have now been enough of these blog wars between various MSM folk and bloggers that it’s possible to draw some conclusions about their dynamics, as well as how they have tended to get started and who they have tended to involve. Generally speaking, the MSM journalists most likely to get caught up in a blog war are reporters who cover the left and Democratic politics with enough attitude and familiarity to place themselves in the position of being both a member of the left or center-left, and yet somehow independent of it. Being a reporter is about being in the world but not of it, and the schmoozy familiarity required to develop good sources over time often places reporters smack in the middle of the social mileaus they cover. Being an insider who is also an outsider tends to be
1. Don’t fight it. There’s an old saying, “Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and the pig likes it.” Basically, every one of these major blog fights between some mainstream media
2. To the extent possible, take your dipute offline as much as you can. That means personal contact and direct e-mail or phone calling, rather than hashing the whole thing out in the open.
3. Remember that there are lots of interests at stake other than the obivous ones.
4. Recall that overkill and alienation are related.
5.