5 Feet of Fury

About four or five years ago, I wrote:

“One day, Antonia Zerbisias will be gone. And I’ll still be here, blogging away — and being read by more people.”

Once again, I’m proven right. (No, actually, it never gets old…)

Notes Jonathan Kay:

the death of Zerbisias’ column marks the latest step in a lengthy, decade-long trend in Canadian journalism: the demise of the hard-left columnist. (…)

It’s not just that Canada has become a more conservative country over the past few years — which it has. It’s the discipline imposed by the blogosphere (including blogs run by this and other newspapers), which immediately point out and mock hysterical, or incorrect information contained in other media.

A decade ago, The Star and CBC could get away with running commentary by whichever conspiracy-theorist Marxist they liked. What was the average reader or listener going to do about it? These days, there is plenty people can do about it — including sending notes to people like me, so the offender can be outed and duly mocked within hours of his or her column appearing.