Next: Complaints about Blogging Being Outsourced to China

Today’s big story out of the Daily Kos convention in Chicago (as big as that could be) is a proposal for bloggers to unionize.  Of course, the first odd aspect of such an idea is the question of with whom would the organized bloggers be bargaining? But this might be a case of ideology-induced terminological confusion. The Associated Press reports:

In a world as diverse, vocal and unwieldy as the blogosphere, there’s no consensus about what type of organization is needed and who should be included. Some argue for a free-standing association for activist bloggers while others suggest a guild open to any blogger — from knitting fans to video gamers — that could be created within established labor groups.

Others see a blogger coalition as a way to find health insurance discounts, fight for press credentials or even establish guidelines for dealing with advertising and presenting data on page views.

This sounds more like a professional association, but calling it a “union” gives it a leftish romantic appeal. Still, with the National Writers Union now courting bloggers, could this lead organized labor to consider attracting members rather than herding them in by organizing their employers?

Whatever the broader implications for organized labor, this is a long shot to even get off the ground. Herding together a group of people who love volunteering their opinions is a job unlikely to be coveted — though it may work by achieveing a strange sense of harmony as a self-reinforcing leftist echo chamber. As the AP reports, “Unsurprisingly, there’s decidedly less support for a union movement among conservative bloggers.” And among libertarians there would be plain hostility to such a petty collectivist exercise.