Category Archives: Blogging

Tribune: Right-Wing Montana Blogs Scarce

The Great Falls Tribune’s editorial board writes a column called “The Edge” that is published every Saturday on their Viewpoints page. It is where the editorial board members kind of let their hair down some. The Viewpoints section is one of my favorite parts of the newspaper. I always read “The Edge” first on Saturday mornings.

In this past Saturday’s column (I cannot find it online) they looked at the disappearance of right-wing blogs in Montana and made some interesting observations. They asked, “why more moderate or left-leaning blogs are sticking around in Montana” instead of the right-leaning blogs.

I have been an active blogger since January 2005. As a recovering right-wing blogger who is now more independent, I have always held moderate beliefs (I see both sides). The Western Word is more of a blog where I comment on the news and issues. Up at the top of the page I state that The Western Word provides “Independent Commentary about Politics, Sports, the Media, and Current Events.”

I thought maybe I could shed some light on the issue of the scarce right-wing blogs.  Continue reading →

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The Best of 2012

2012 was the best year yet here at The Western Word (TWW) – and I’ve been doing this since January 2005! Thank you!

It is always fun to see which columns are viewed the most and from where the columns are viewed – this past year people from 75 countries visited TWW – a special “shout-out” to one person in China who stopped by!

Listed below are the top five columns that received the most views in 2012 here at The Western Word.  Continue reading →

Out of the Office…

Due to unforeseen circumstances I will be off the blogging trail for a few days.  I plan to return to the fray late next week (July 15-21).  Please, no tears.  I will return!

In the meantime, you can catch me on Twitter @TheWesternWord.

All my love,

Jack

2011 – A Look Back!

Now that we have safely made it to 2012 and you’ve had a chance to read other lists from 2011, it’s time to take a look back at the top columns (called posts on blogs) here at The Western Word.

It was a record-breaking year here at TWW – with more readers stopping by than ever before – and several columns being linked to or posted on newspaper websites around the country.

Here are the top five columns from 2011:

Continue reading →

Kick the Tires…

I decided to change the “theme” of The Western Word (TWW), so take a look around and tell me what you think.

Kick the tires – and let me know your thoughts.  I think I had used the same type of set-up for TWW since I was on “blogger” way back in the day (January 2005), so it’s time for a change!

We’ll be Around: Continue reading →

Top Five Columns of 2010

There’s a countdown for almost everything toward the end of the year. Here at The Western Word, we’re no different as 2010 winds down.

I decided to do some checking and see what my faithful readers liked in 2010. I also checked to see which sports column and weekly “Caught My Eye” column had the most readers. Enjoy. Continue reading →

Tribune: Bwahahahaha!!

It’s been fun to watch the Great Falls Tribune struggle with how to deal with on-line comments – especially the ones that are a little nasty.

Many newspapers are having problems adapting to the new type of discussion that used to happen at the coffee shops or around the water fountain. In fact, with circulation down, people being laid off or having their jobs shipped to who knows where, many newspapers are attempting to get in the social networking express lane and using their newspaper websites as a place to foster discussion.

As I have written before, I don’t really care for reporters who blog or newspapers that support blogs. They can’t beat us, so they tread into our territory, but I regress…

In 2010 if a newspaper story ticks someone off, a person can just head to their laptop and type a zinger of a comment in the comment section of the story, and BAM!

It seems every few months the Tribune runs an editorial from their leaders telling folks to be nice when they leave comments on-line. It hasn’t been working too well, so they did another editorial the day after Christmas warning their on-line community they had better watch out. Continue reading →

Paying Attention

On Friday, the Great Falls Tribune conducted one of their daily online polls with a question about political bloggers. This was a follow-up to the Associated Press story and their “investigation” into a political blog called Montana Cowgirl.

The Tribune asked: “Do you pay attention to political bloggers who don’t identify themselves?”

The results were published in Saturday’s paper. With 501 people voting, 92% said they did not pay attention to political bloggers who don’t identify themselves and 8% said they did.

I voted. I was part of the 8%.

The Tribune also has a section on their website for people to leave comments about the questions. It’s called a “Forum” section. People with the names of Rainbow, Bigsky, wbill, and Cowcud (to name a few) all left comments about the Tribune forum question. Continue reading →

Caught My Eye…

If it’s Friday, then it’s time for “Caught My Eye” the weekly (almost award-winning) column where I take a look (sometimes with a little sarcasm) at some of the stories that I did not have time to comment about during the week.

This week I take a look at global warming, powerful women, a visit to the Guard, China, the IRS, and much more.

Since it’s Friday and not much work is getting done, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and enjoy this week’s look at the news… Continue reading →

Bloodsuckers

Local governments are always looking for ways to “stick it to the little guy or gal” it seems.

If you look at your utility or tax bills, you’ll see all sorts of taxes and fees just to live where you live. By the way, politicians like to use the term “fees” as this keeps them from saying the “tax” word and angering voters.

It was not really a surprise when I recently read that the City of Philadelphia is charging bloggers $300 per year for a “business privilege license” because they believe blogging is a business.

They consider blogging a business because some bloggers receive a little money for advertisements that run on their blogs. The bloggers reported this as income on their taxes and “BAM” here comes the local government bloodsuckers to get their share. Continue reading →