Matt Welch has a warning for the blog community:
Any human ecosystem that is suddenly subject to the glare of media attention — praise, derision, whatever — is inevitably changed and distorted by the process. It’s hard to see clearly with the lights shining on your face, no matter if you are a trained cynic, journalist, anti-fluffitarian or lead singer. The easiest trap is to confuse attention with actual self-importance — if they’re all looking at me, I must be special, right? Call it the David Talbot Syndrome. Can’t tell you how many times I made a somber, pretentious ass of myself back in Prague, when the next round of A-list teevee journalists (Lesley Stahl, Judd Rose) would come to town to do the Young Americans in Prague story. Remember: if you lose your sense of humor, if your skin becomes thin, if you develop an exalted and undeserved sense of personal status … then you have let the gatekeepers win. By becoming one of them.