I want to talk for a sec about blogging.

"This posting thing, it makes me edgy," blurted a restaurateur I just got off the phone with. Posting thing? "You know, bloggers. Write whatever they want, whenever they want. Not like you career critics," she hastened to qualify to the career critic, who was at that moment fact-checking her review of the woman’s restaurant. "You’re a professional. You’ve been doing this a long time. Who knows who the bloggers are?"

Hmm. I’m a blogger now. I know who one of ‘em is.

I get her point though. Professional critics generally adhere to certain conventions of the trade: Wait at least six weeks to review a place to let it work out the kinks; don’t let your personal stuff, like detesting eggplant, influence your review; call to fact-check. Critics pull from a body of experience that informs their judgment; bloggers pull from…well, who knows. The nearest orifice it sometimes seems.

Is it right that any dork with an opinion and an internet provider can now influence public response to a hard-working person’s enterprise? Because the restaurateur was right…I don’t know the palates of these commentators. Suddenly it’s like the whole world’s a Zagat guide. Do they have opinions worth listening to?

Or does it matter? Maybe if we leave it up to the babble of the rabble, in time a solid aggregate assessment of a given restaurant will rise to the surface. And maybe that’s the most trustworthy assessment of all.

In the meantime—in a failing economy—restaurateurs languish and wring their hands and feel vulnerable to every one-star slam.

Thoughts?