Doc Searls Passes on Fontgate

I used to have a policy of never covering anything that was a meme, where everybody and their brother had an opinion on one particular story. I tend to get saturated fast with the latest news, and when everybody's talking about the same thing, I start looking around for that something else that is lurking around the edges, just out of view.

So I can easily understand why Doc said

Well, folks, it's not that I don't care. Or that I don't know anything. It's that I don't know enough, and I'm busy doing my job, which isn't blogging.

And it's not like nobody's on the case. I see Technorati finds 332 posts matching "Rathergate" alone.

My fave, of the few threads I've visited on the matter, is this one, following a cautious and responsible post by Dan Gillmor. Lots of intersting thoughts and perspectives in there.

Go over and read the whole thing -- what surprises me about this is that one of his readers actually complained that he wasn't covering Fontgate/Rathergate. Can it be that those who only read blogs really do want more of the same?

Or more to the point, are we entering a new phase of blogging where we'll be more driven by what our readers want, rather than what we happen to be interested in at the moment?

If you're not aware of Doc, he's one of the earlier bloggers, with a big audience. He tends more toward the tech things, and among other things is a senior editor ofLinux Journal, and one of the authors of the Cluetrain manifesto. I pay attention to what's happening with the big guys because what's happening with them usually filters down to we lesser lights.

But I wonder what my readers are thinking...