Why Should "Blogger" Have a Negative Stigma?

Shoemoney recently mentioned that his blog was nominated for several blog awards. In his post, Shoe said "I never considered myself a blogger and at first and even until a few weeks ago I took it as an insult when people would introduce me as a 'blogger.'" To that I say "Really?" I don't understand why blogging or being a blogger should have a negative or dismissive connotation. Sure, there are plenty of superfluous MySpace and Live Journal blogs floating around the web that few people actually read or care about (I mentioned in an earlier SEOmoz post that bloggers write for attention, which irked quite a few readers), but these people enjoy blogging and writing about their day to day events, so what the hell. There are obviously different classes of blogging--a personal blog about how much you love Zac Efron from High School Musical isn't in quite the same league as a tech blog or a business blog (I'd rate Shoe's blog just above an I Heart Neo Pets blog, but just below a blog about toe socks. Just kidding. :D ) For the sake of this post, I'm thinking more along the lines of "business-related" blogging, but if you're really proud about your toe socks blog, more power to ya. It's nice to be an authority on something, right? I think blogging has drawn the upturned nose because traditional journalists poo-poo over how blogging isn't true journalism, and that blogging should be lower on the food chain than journalism because the writing is inferior and there's less fact checking (indeed, someone recently complained about how Rand should do more fact checking for his blog posts). I don't know about you guys, but I always thought of blogging as opinion-based, hence no need to fact check. Of course, it depends on the post. If you're talking about what factors you personally think affect rankings, blog to your heart's content because it's all stipulation and personal opinion. If, however, you present the same factors as bonafide fact, drop a few resource links so you won't look stupid. I'm proud to be a blogger. I'm happy to get something published and available on the web in a shorter turnaround time than a weekly column would take. I like injecting my opinion and point of view into my writing (but hell, I'm judgmental and objective writing is never as fun). I enjoy being immature in my posts every so often. Ass. Poop. And, of course, I enjoy the attention. (Hey, at least I'm honest about it.) So, for those of you who, like Shoe, feel a pang of guilt or shame at the thought of being called a "blogger," I say it's time for us to come out of the closet and embrace our title. We are bloggers. We're paid (or not...) to do this for a reason, so why feel ashamed? Sure, sometimes we clutter up the tubez with blithering drivel, but so do YouTube comments, so we can't be that detrimental to the Internet. So, my fellow bloggers, stand up and hold your heads high. Yeah? Good. Now get back to work blogging about those toe socks. Ass. Poop.