Earthquake in Peru

I never know whether or not to link to stories like this one about breaking news from Peru where an earthquake has killed hundreds and done all sorts of other damage. I have nothing to say about it, but it seems wrong not to recognize these tragedies and their victims.

Comments

I suspect you should feel fine not posting about these tragedies - they're certainly deserving of our attention, but you're writing a U.S.-focused blog, not the AP wire or the CNN crawl, and saying "it seems wrong not to recognize these tragedies and their victims" is just openly begging the trolls to scream and shout every time you fail to post about whatever their Outrage of the Day happens to be. It's a step down the road to Not Posting = Not Caring. Don't go down that road, or you get: Don't you know that Communism killed way more than 300 people, Matt? Or don't you CARE?

Posted by The Navigator | August 16, 2007 9:24 AM

Post only about things you have something to say about, or stuff you might not have something to say about but you think deserves your readers' attention.

This fits neither; the news is all over everywhere, it's not something we're missing out on by you not posting about it, like, say, some excellent but hidden foreign policy essay or something.

Posted by Adam | August 16, 2007 9:46 AM

Basically what Matt is saying is that he can't figure out how to blame it on Bush yet.

Posted by JBJB | August 16, 2007 10:26 AM

I think Matt Y. should post about whatever the heck he wants to post about, and his readers can read it or not or comment or not. I think the cool kids call it "blogging".

Posted by Jeff S. | August 16, 2007 10:43 AM

Much appreciated from a long time reader, first time poster - my entire family is in Lima right now (all fine). While I'm sure everyone has seen the news, knows what happened and didn't hear it from you first, in a weird way it's reassuring to know that people with no connection whatsoever to the tragedy are somewhat affected, at least enough to feel inclined to post it on their blog.

Posted by Carlos | August 16, 2007 10:48 AM

I second Carlos's comment.

Posted by ew | August 16, 2007 11:21 AM

I second Carlos's and Jeff's comments. I don't understand the rigidity in some people's approach to blogging - it signals inflexibility, and that's not something to be proud of.

Posted by Israel | August 16, 2007 3:27 PM