Cletus, The Slack-Jawed Blogger

Charles Cooper, the executive editor of "CNET News.com," doesn't like what he saw ... and I'm not talking about the view from the mirror. He's talking about the blogger

With a few exceptions, most of the credentialed bloggers came off like cyberhayseeds in the big city. Many dared for the painfully obvious as they updated their posts. Most of the blogging entries I have read ranged from the insufferably pedantic to the sublimely mediocre. There were exceptions, of course, but the see-me, hear-me tenor of their reporting was only exceeded by the vapidity of the banal commentaries peddled as analyses.

Coop's speaking more in sorrow than in anger.

Truth be told, it's especially frustrating to have to write these lines, because I still believe blogging is one of the most exciting developments of the last five years.

Yes, convention bloggers, no matter how much you smile at Coop, you'll never take the place of Peter Duchin in his heart. You're all a bunch of rusticated bumpkins, says Coop.

But as they took their place alongside other credentialed media, bloggers finally had to put up or shut up. I don't know how many would ever admit this gig was a lot more difficult than it looked from the outside. But with the pressure on to work under the constraints mainstream hacks have to contend with on a daily basis--get the story, get it right in all its complexity, and oh, by the way, get it 10 minutes ago--they were found wanting.

I must have missed the part where part where TalkLeft and Pacific Views were given million-dollar techonology budgets and staffs of hundreds to cover the convention.

In truth, bloggers did things the mainstream media and Coop didn't do -- like ask Bob Novak who criminally exposed Valerie Plame. You won't see that on CNN or Press the Meat.

It's hard to tell what Charles Cooper expected the attendees to do -- did some unexpected news occur at the convention that bloggers got scooped on? Was he expecting the bloggers' take on funny hats? I guess the pressure of writing filler for an advertising supplement has turned Coop bitter.