Comments On Electronic Media
Siegel is known for coining the term "blogofascism", a term that he meant to describe what he considered the blogosphere's dominant rhetoric of insult, intimidation, and attack, which he claimed was exemplified by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas. In September 2006, Siegel was suspended from The New Republic, after an internal investigation determined he was participating in misleading comments in the magazine's "Talkback" section, in response to criticisms of his blog postings at The New Republic's website and vicious attacks on his character. The comments were made through the device of a "sock puppet" dubbed "sprezzatura", who, as one reader noted, was a consistently vigorous defender of Siegel, and who specifically denied being Siegel when challenged by another commenter in "Talkback". In response to readers who had criticized Siegel's negative comments about TV talk show host Jon Stewart, 'sprezzatura' wrote, "Siegel is brave, brilliant, and wittier than Stewart will ever be. Take that, you bunch of immature, abusive sheep." The New Republic posted an apology and shut down Siegel's blog. In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Siegel dismissed the incident as a "prank". He resumed writing for The New Republic in April 2007.
Siegel's critique of Web culture, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, was published in January 2008. It was praised by Janet Maslin in the New York Times as "rigorously sane, fair, and illuminating... brings dead-on accuracy to depicting the quietly insinuating ways in which the Internet can blow your mind." On February 14, 2008, Siegel appeared on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, where he discussed the book.
Read more about this topic: Lee Siegel (cultural Critic)
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