Checking in w/Yglesias

Matthew Yglesias is briefly mentioned in Massing’s article, “The News About the Internet.” Massing states that like Paul Kiel - a ProPublica writer and former staff at Talking Points Memo - Matthew Yglesias is “an emerging new breed of ‘hybrids,’ schooled in both the practices of print journalism and the uses of cyberspace.” And that’s it.

Massing is on point in regards to his comment about Matthew Yglesias. Yglesias is a Harvard graduate who began blogging in his college days and getting into the Web and all its uses. He was associate editor for Talking Points Memo and The Atlantic, with many contributions to The New York Times and Slate. So clearly, he has both experience with the Web and journalism.

My first impressions of Yglesias’ blog continue to hold true. He has yet to really do any original reporting, as set by traditional journalism standards. Though, he is extremely aware of the world around him and discusses – discusses – significant issues in our American government and across the globe. He raises awareness of issues that should be discussed and further investigated by journalists, and “average Joes.” Yglesias provokes thought with insightful opinions and analyses, which in turn creates a relatively large readership of persons who comment and further discuss the issue.

Lately, Yglesias seems to be blogging primarily about issues overseas (American troops, Afghanistan, Israel) and about health care reform. Of course, he blogs about many other issues – random issues – that are also important ideas to analyze and discuss.

The most recent blog on his site, McDonald’s Withdraws from Iceland, consists of a brief analysis as to why the country is losing the fast food restaurant, with appropriate links to the actual news article on BBC’s Web site.

And of course, no original reporting to be found.