This Whole Nasty Loren Feldman/1938 Media Business

Loren Feldman's Controversial "Where Are the Black Bloggers" Video

Verizon has nailed Loren Feldman, whose quixotic but occasionally hilarious videos have won the hearts and minds of thousands. But Verizon renaged from the agreement to make Feldman's clips available to its mobile network after protesters alleged that a video recorded by Feldman last year entitled "Where Are the Black Tech Bloggers" promoted anti-African-American stereotypes.

I generally like Feldman because he takes aim at powerful and pompous tech industry people with the power to hurt him back, and this may have been what happened to him this time around. But I don't think "Where Are The Black Tech Bloggers" is funny, nor is it even true. There have been several notable black tech bloggers, notably Steve Gilliard (1964-2007) who blogged about tech copiously from the late 1990s to 2003.

In my view, Feldman fell short by not acknowledging that African Americans have been, are, and will be important members of the Blogging scene when he created "Where Are The Black Tech Bloggers." Even those who believe that Mr. Feldman's wish for "a different cultural view of technology" is sincere should be troubled that he didn't better research his subject before creating this video.