Gillmor responds to Kinsley in latest old/new media skirmish

In his Bayosphere blog, Dan Gillmor today smacks down Michael Kinsley's smack down on Internet culture from this morning's L.A. Times.

"Why is the tone of conversation on the Internet, especially about politics, so much lower than in the material world?" Kinsley asks in his column. The Times opinion editor and former Slate.com editor takes Web users to task on topics from e-mail ettiquette, the economics of online content and even for the treatment of the Times' botched wikitorials.

"It's not surprising that cyberians make lousy communitarians," Kinsley concludes. "Libertarian instincts are a more natural political fit with the silicon lifestyle."

Gillmor responds with a shrug, pointing the finger instead at Kinsley and the Times for not taking steps many other online writers and publishers have to ward off anonymous nags.

"Kinsley is a brilliant but old-school journalist who genuinely seems intent on stretching boundaries. He's do better if he stopped scolding the cyberworld and started truly working with it."