The Hill makes the astounding prediction that Bloggers won't match Limbaugh Well, who the hell ever claimed that they would? After all, Rush is still considered to be in a class of his own in Radio. Comparing him to the fledgling world of blogging is asinine. Even then, the Hill completely misses the reasons for the inevitable. They list four main hurdles that bloggers must overcome.

First, they list Rush's show prep as a huge asset. They are right, but any blogger could easily scour the internet for news and information. Having the discipline to read through them all is something else that anyone could train themselves to do.

They also make a claim about Rush's persuasiveness. The Hill claims that bloggers spend too much time mimicking each other, and not enough time coming up with original ideas. "Because some bloggers, even prominent ones, spend so much time writing throughout the entire day, they don't research their own ideas well enough to be persuasive."

Persuasiveness is about more than preparedness and research. It helps to be grounded in truth and fact. The Hill is on the right track, but the still miss the boat with this one.

Second, they note Limbaugh's production technique. Rush's experience as a disc jockey taught him that entertainment value is king. Then they go off on a tangent, and blast all bloggers for some people's poor web design. "By comparison, most bloggers seem oblivious to the production details that might polish their communication efforts. Few seem to care about the principles of effective Web design. Some even seem to consider the primitive style of their blogs a badge of honor."

They are on the right track with entertainment value but they go on a wild goose chase with the presentation. Many weblogs are brilliantly presented and have professional designs. Blaming everyone for the poor designs of a few would be akin to blaming Rush for Opie and Anthony's solicitation of a couple to have sex in a Catholic church.

Third, they harp on entertainment value again. Sure, entertainment is hugely important, but to say that all bloggers are boring is yet another baseless generalization. Limbaugh can be very witty, but then so can plenty of bloggers out there.

Fourth, they claim that the bonds that Limbaugh builds with his audience are somehow unique. "He provides enough details about his personal life that loyal listeners know something about his parents, brother, wife, their cats, his golf game, his diet, his hearing problems, etc." Like bloggers never do that?? This one is completely bogus. Sure it works for Rush, but that is not the reason bloggers will never be as successful.

All of these points about Rush are completely valid. Of course, they have nothing to do with their claim that bloggers will never be as successful as Rush. First of all, the idea that bloggers won't be as successful is a little silly. Being that Rush runs his own web site with political commentary, Rush could actually be considered a blogger. Neal Boortz, who also makes his bread and butter from radio could also be considered a blogger.

If I were to make the case however, I would say that the biggest handicap for bloggers, is the competition. There are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs, whereas in even the largest markets, there are only a handful of talk radio shows. Talk radio also has it's practical limitations. In the spectrum of public radio waves, there never could be hundreds of thousands of talk radio shows. Even with the advent of subscription based satellite radio, which is comparable to digital cable or satellite, there would probably only ever be a few hundred talk radio programs in any given market.

Not only does Rush face much less direct competition, but he rose to prominence when talk radio was effectively a dead medium. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to claim that Rush revitalized AM radio. Rush is, and always will be, the Godfather of talk radio. He pioneered the business.

Who pioneered blogging? Nobody really has. Sure, you have people like Taranto and Glenn Reynolds, but outside of the blogging community, they are still largely unknown. Even people that don't listen to Rush, recognize his voice, and know who he is. Ask someone on the street who Andrew Sullivan is, and you'll probably get a blank stare.

To put it in the simplest of terms, Rush started out as just about the only fish in a tiny pond, and has grown into a huge fish in a relatively small pond. Bloggers however, are much smaller fish in a much, much bigger pond.

The second biggest handicap for bloggers is probably the medium itself. Humans like to have stuff fed to them, like on TV and radio. For that reason, the internet as we know it will probably never be quite as big as radio or TV. Not discounting future developments, humans would still rather have radio or TV on even as a background noise, than spend time reading through pages of text and pictures.

A third reason is the profit model. Internet advertising just doesn't pay like it used to, and until it does, radio and TV will continue to be bigger cash cows. Naturally, competition comes into play here as well. With few exceptions, usually it is radio and TV that bring people to the web, not the other way around.

But then again, what do I know? I'm just a blogger.