Often I’ve heard “blogs” and “meta-commentary” in the same breath. I have to find some real references on this. In the meantime, I wanted to just point out that they aren’t exclusive to each other.

Salon editor Gary Kamiya, in a dismissive review of Slate’s debut in 1996″
“Slate’s brain trust may have gone the meta-commentary, game-oriented, inside-baseball route in the front of the book because they decided that the Internet is essentially a quick-hit, gossipy, information-driven medium. Whatever their reasoning, however, it was a mistake. This approach capitulates to some of the worst contemporary cultural trends, rather than resisting them.”

This belongs up there with the famous “passing fad” premonitions regarding talking movies and horseless carriages.

Perhaps the one difference is that most of Slate’s meta-commentary’s feeds off the big publishers. The blogosphere, on the other hand, is associated with unearthing, and amplifying smaller news stories.

More analysis to come.