Not Everyone Should Blog

Bill Hobbs, who along with Robert Cox, is doing yeoman's work putting together the BlogNashville conference I'll be attending the first week of May, has some admirable hopes for blogging in his homestate of Tennessee including one that probably goes to far:

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, every elected official in Tennessee above the rank of constable would blog, and every last one of them would be watch-dogged by at least two bloggers.

I'm as much of a blog proponent as the next web writer, but if Hobbes's dream were realized, I wonder how things would get done in Tennessee. And what value to the citizenry is gained if every state senator and representative copies and pastes his talking points up on the web? And who would read the things anyway? Most people don't care much at all about local government. Would blogging really make them care?

I think citizens would be better served by blogs run by the various parties and interest groups rather than by the government, because part of being a true blogger is to be a watchdog. I'd feel the same if government officials started printing out newspapers for the public.