# Posted 4:57 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

INTERVIEWING MYSELF: A journalist researching a story on Jewish bloggers recently asked me to do an interview. Since I decided to the interview by e-mail, I actually have a record of what I wanted to say. And since only one or two quotes will make it into the final article, I figured I'd post the rest of the interview here on OxBlog:

When did you start doing the blogger thing and why?

I was at Patrick’s wedding in August 2002 when I had my first real conversation with Josh. I had met him once or twice at Oxford, but didn’t really know him all that well. He told me about this website he’d started called OxBlog.

Later that week, I read OxBlog for the first time. I was so taken with Josh’s writing that I read all of his archived posts, going back to April of that year. Then I sent him a message asking if could join the site.

I think I became a part of OxBlog because I felt that I had something to say and wanted an audience to hear it. Not just a passive audience, but one that would react and criticize and challenge.

What's your main purpose with your blog? Is it to generate a discussion? Promote a viewpoint? If you had to describe the overriding purpose or point of the blog-- what would it be?

The overriding purpose of my blogging is to educate myself. You have to do a lot of reading before you have something coherent to say, and you have think a lot harder about what you’re going to say when you know that thousands of intelligent readers are watching every word you say.

Before I started graduate school, I worked for one year as a researcher at a Washington think tank. I had just graduated from college and had lots of academic knowledge that I was proud of. But I quickly realized that if I didn’t pay close attention to the issues of the day, my academic knowledge wouldn’t have much application.

When I started blogging in September 2002, I had just finished my second year of graduate school. I knew at the time that I wanted to do policy work rather than going in to academia. But this time around, I wanted to graduate with a strong handle on current events, so that my academic knowledge would do me some good.

Within a month or so of putting up my first post, I knew that blogging was the best way possible to prepare myself for leaving the ivory tower.

Are there are topics you specifically avoid talking about on the Blog or that you find uncomfortable?

The toughest judgment calls all have to do with how much personal information I decide to give out on the blog. One of the most attractive things about blogging is that when you read a blog, you feel like you are talking to a real human being. In contrast, professional journalists tend cultivate an air of authoritative objectivity, which I find to be both artificial and cold.

Blog readers tend to have warm feelings about their favorite authors, so you can count on them to be a sympathetic audience. Who wouldn’t be tempted to explain to a sympathetic audience of thousands why their ex-girlfriend is a heartless bitch? But from where I stand, telling strangers about your personal life is a way of running away from your problems while violating the privacy of those around you.

Still, that doesn’t mean you should impose a blackout on your personal life. For example, last year I did a running series on my impressive run of first-round losses in some amateur karate tournaments. I’ve never been a good athlete, so the stories were pretty amusing.

I also decided to post on OxBlog about my mother’s ordination as a rabbi in May 2003. I was extremely proud of her – as I’ve always been – and decided that I had the right to shep some nachas in the blogosphere.

Of everything you've written or debated on your Blog thus far, what do you perceive as having gotten the most attention or reaction from people? Is there any one thing that stands out?

What always surprise me are the passionate responses I get every time I write about religion. When I write about religion, I tend to get mail from readers who’ve never written in before, but who’ve suddenly decided to compose long and thoughtful essays on subjects that are very clearly close to their hearts.

The discussions that result from these letters – many of which I’ve posted on OxBlog – are extremely educational. Despite attending a yeshiva day school for 13 years – or perhaps because of it – I find that my knowledge of Christianity is almost negligible.

When Mel Gibson’s Passion came out a few months ago, I suggested in one post that the Gospels were inherently anti-Semitic, or at least anti-Judaic. In response, I received detailed theological arguments to the contrary from a half-dozen Christian perspectives. While I’m still not sure what I think about this issue, I know for a fact that Christians across the United States are putting a lot of thought and care into answering this kind of very hard question.

In contrast, 13 years of yeshiva education left me with the impression that Christians were instinctive anti-Semites who aren’t even open-minded enough to face up to their prejudices.

In your opinion, how have bloggers affected the nation's political dialogue and/or the political process?

In rare instances, for example the Trent Lott affair, bloggers have had a visible impact on events of national importance. But the real significance of our work as bloggers is that way that it has become a resource for professional journalists.

As armchair columnists, bloggers depend on the mainstream media for almost all of their news. As a result, bloggers are at least as critical of the journalists who provide us our information as we are of the elected officials who run our country. In contrast, the journalists themselves focus almost entirely on the politicians and rarely, in the midst of deadlines, to reflect on the quality of their work.

Of course, there is a big political divide on the issue of media bias. Almost every blogger to the right of center spends an extensive amount of time deconstructing the New York Times and other papers in order to show how journalists’ personal beliefs influence their coverage, in spite of their professed objectivity.

Almost every blogger to the left of center argues that conservatives’ complaints about media bias are nothing more than a diversion from the actual failures of elected officials, failures that show up in the paper because they are simply a matter of fact. The exception to this rule are those bloggers to the far left of center who insist that the media defends Republican interests from behind a veil of objectivity.

To be continued. (0) opinions -- Add your opinion