Joe Gandelman and TMV

Joe Gandelman and I were colleagues at the old San Diego Union, before it was merged with the old, and moribund, Evening Tribune, in the early 1990s.

We both left the paper, went our own ways, and I always remembered Joe for his energy. First and foremost, Joe Gandelman was energetic. I had no idea how energetic, though, until years later, when I discovered his blog, "The Moderate Voice." I have a blog, yes, but I am not a classic blogger. I post essays, and I post them when I feel like it. A classic blogger posts in stream-of-consciousness rhythm, pouring out thoughts and observations in such volume that I don't know when they eat or sleep.

Joe was doing this, when I found him again a couple of years ago. At that time, I also discovered that he was a ventriloquist. He does shows, mostly for kids, all over the country. During and after our October fires in San Diego, he was going to evacuation sites, doing his show to distract kids, and others, from their fears.

Joe is now editor-in-chief of "The Moderate Voice," or, TMV. If you have visited the blogosphere, you know that it is highly politicized and opinionated, or at least it can be. There is endless shouting in the blogosphere, from the left and from the right, much of it from people who represent a majority of one. These are the MOOs. A blogger can make a gentle observation, such as, "Water is wet," and count on streams of abuse from MOOs.

Joe's niche is moderation, politically and vocally. A centrist voice, he calls it. I have contributed a couple of pieces to TMV in the past year, and Joe has occasionally linked to my blog. This week, we took another step. One of the constant blogosphere themes is the media. In a long career as a journalist and educator, the media – what it is, and how it works, and how the general public doesn't know what it is, or how it works – has become a major personal theme.

As he regularly does for people with serious content to contribute, Joe offered to make me a "co-blogger" at TMV. I accepted, and contributed my first co-blog this week, four paragraphs at TMV, and an invitation to read the rest here, at my own blog. Practically all of my TMV co-blogs will concern media, which of course will be posted in their entirety here (see above), while also allowing me to wax on non-TMV issues which are important to me, such as turkey surgery (see below).