The Volokh Conspiracy - Judge Kozinski and the Blogosphere:

Professor Eric Goldman recently hosted a talk with Judge Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit that touched on Kozinski's views about blogs:

  ERIC GOLDMAN: So but what about blogs? . . .
  JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI: I hate them, hateful things.
  ERIC GOLDMAN: Why do you hate blogs? . . . .
  JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI: I just think it's so self-indulgent, you know. "Oh, I'm so proud of what I'm saying, I think the world instantly wants to know what I'm thinking today." People wake up thinking, . . . . "I wonder what great thoughts have come into his mind this morning that I can feel myself edified by. I can't really have breakfast — really enjoy my day — until I hear the great thoughts of Howard Bashman!"
  I don't think so. I go for months without ever knowing what Howard has to say. So I don't know. I find it sort of self-indulgent. And I find it grandiloquent. And I find it annoying, particularly if I'm in an audience and people are sitting there typing in their computers.

Listening to the tape, it sounds like Judge Kozinski is exaggerating a bit for comic effect. Still, I guess his views have changed a lot since his campaign to be elected the #1 Male Superhottie of the Federal Judiciary.

Hat tip: Howard, naturally.

(link)

Haven't listened, but I can hear Homer Simpson in my head.

4.26.2007 8:31pm

Easy to say that when you've already got a big mouthpiece and some views actually have authority.

4.26.2007 8:33pm

gsmcneal (www):

Wellll, it's pretty on point, guilty as charged! haha.

My only quibble is the part about Howard. I don't really think that Howard spends much time sharing his "great thoughts" but instead just keeps us "self-indulgent" types informed with great links to the news of the day.

4.26.2007 8:39pm

Henri LeCompte (mail):

I suppose I could understand this attitude if someone was forcing the good judge to read blogs all day long. Since I doubt this is the case, my self-indulgent, grandiloquent advice for him is "Turn off the computer!!"

Silly.

4.26.2007 8:48pm

Bruce:

I've met others who have the same reaction, but with less mockery. (Also, picking on Bashman seems odd -- he doesn't post his thoughts, usually, he posts links to other people's thoughts.) I think a lot of people assume that bloggers have a very high opinion of their own knowledge and skills, which is what drives them to post. I think that's wrong in at least some cases, but Kozinski is not alone.

4.26.2007 9:38pm

Jacob (mail):

gmcneal-
Bashman's How Appealling blog is mostly links with minimal commentary, yes, but his appellate columns are also posted on a "blog" (in name if not form). Maybe Judge Kozinski was thinking of those types of pieces? I know he and Bashman were on opposite sides of Rule 32.1, which Bashman has written about there.

4.26.2007 9:41pm

zooba:

Perhaps this has something to do with the change of heart?

4.26.2007 10:36pm

Anderson (mail) (www):

Bashman's post title, "Don't Hate the Player," gave me a laugh.

4.27.2007 12:41am

MS (mail):

With apologies to our host, Kozinski has always been a loudmouth self-promoter. He proves once again the maxim that if you want to know a man, ask him to criticize someone else.

4.27.2007 12:50am

anonym:

Odd. Based on Kosinski's eccentric character, clever writing, and fascination with off-beat items, I would have thought that Kozinski would love to blog himself.

I wonder whether Kozinski feels this way because he is now being upstaged by bloggers, because Kozinski now no longer has a monopoly on making self-indulgent and grandiloquent statements himself.

4.27.2007 4:06am

Chris 24601 (mail):

I think zooba's right--the ATL thing about Judge Berzon really annoyed him a lot.

4.27.2007 10:36am

DJR:

"Grandiloquent." What a bizarre word. It's automatically ironic, in that one that uses it to describe something else necessarily directs its definition back on oneself.

4.27.2007 4:51pm

BobH (mail):

MS says, "Kozinski has always been a loudmouth self-promoter." I don't know if that's true, strictly speaking, but I CAN say that he was a year ahead of me at the UCLA School of Law, and in the few classes where we overlapped he was always the guy in the front row with his hand constantly in the air.

4.27.2007 6:17pm