Glad I don't live in London, or read the London Times. Here's the Times' Simon Jenkins on bloggers:
These people claim to be the unofficial legislators of free
opinion. They quake, rant, muckrake, scream like 17th-century Puritans.
Most of the blog sites regurgitate and spin what the mainstream media
(dismissively the “MSM”) has spent millions finding and checking.
Most are fanatically conservative. All you need is a taste for
exhibitionism and a fancy name: mediabistro, FishBowlDC, wonkette. One
Yahoo blogger, Ted Rall, gives warning of the blogosphere: “A new
sheriff’s in town. He’s drunk. He’s mean, and he works for the bad
guys.” The web is the Bushites’ revenge on the liberal media
establishment. A blog polarises or dies.
The web has undoubtedly honoured its claim to be the democracy of the air. Every columnist’s motto may be Milton’s “Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making”. But to what end? On the web, opinion travels first class while facts go steerage. The opinion blogs that I occasionally read — one is formed every seven seconds — show scant respect for the disciplines of journalism.
What a load of interesting assertions....It sounds more like another example of the Print Media quaking in the face of a ne blog every seven seconds; "We are the Print Media. We represent the people. Fuck them."
Scott Burgess sets Mr. Jenkins straight, here.
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