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Saturday, March 12, 2005

Simon Jenkins takes up the baton - Bloggers versus the media continued

Simon Jenkins has followed the recent example of Iain Duncan Smith and written an article on blogging in one of the internet's free to read publications produced by the so-called "Mainstream Media."
Background:
- Times columnist Simon Jenkins to join the Guardian, January 27, 2005
- He is currently writing a book on politics, to be published by Allen Lane (January 27, 2005?)

Simon Jenkins, "Under my keyboard the desk shakes. The bloggers are on the march," The Times, March 11, 2005
-"What is clear is that the blogosphere has taken the press temporarily by storm... Newpapers have been upstaged successively by the teleprinter, radio, television and now the internet. Each barbarian wave arrives at the gates of Rome and claims to be "resetting the agenda". Each assimilates into the local population."
- "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 (BCB - a networking service for journalists), FishBowlDC (BCB - Bloggers blag way into White House, Times, 8 March, 2005), wonkette. One Yahoo blogger, Ted Rall, (BCB - America's hardest-hitting editorial cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate, is an award-winning commentator who also works as an illustrator, columnist, and radio commentator.) 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."
- "Yet the ground did shake under me. Earlier threats to the press came from new conduits of news and information. Today’s goes to the heart of my trade. It peddles opinion. I can pretend to occupy a higher plane. I can try pleading factual accuracy, consistency, uncorruptibility and a quote or two from Shakespeare.
- "But in truth I too am a blogger, snatching at some item of passing news to argue a case and persuade. And I charge for it. The blogger does it for nothing. I am on my mettle as never before."
- "So move over, Caxton, the mystery is no more. The whistle-blowers, e-babies, inside-outers, wonkettes, quacks and cranks have globalised Speakers’ Corner. They have rebuilt the Tower of Babel and put microphones on top of it. Amid the noise, a still small voice of reason will still be heard. But it may require the help of Microsoft, not dead trees."

- Which has been pretty thoroughly dissected and rebutted (Fisked) in typical fashion by the Daily Ablution:
The Daily Ablution, "Who's Quaking Now?" March 11, 2005
"Nonsense. A successful blog needn't polarise. A blog interests, informs and entertains or dies - much like a newspaper columnist."
"Journalists who are accurate and honest have little to fear - the facts will out. Their less capable (and less truthful) colleagues risk the humiliation of public ridicule."
"And for me, that - not quaking, ranting or screaming - is what media criticism blogging is all about."

- Harry's Place has also considered Jenkin's article: Quacks and Cranks, 11 March, 2005.
- Jenkins: "The problem for conventional journalism is to prove that such qualities as newsgathering and reliability are worth more than a scream of opinion, enough to get people to part with money. I notice how often blogs refer to items witnessed on television or read in The New York Times. Someone must gather this stuff, check it, source it, write and edit it." - Harry: "Well, of course. We bloggers all know that we need quality articles in the papers in order to have something to discuss. So does Simon Jenkins I would imagine. After all, what would columnists like him write about if there were no reporters to create actual news for him to respond to?
But bloggers, the better ones anyway, do carry out research. They check the sources of newspaper articles, they leave links so that readers can check out their source material."
- Harry: "While American blogs react against the small-c conservatism of the US media, British blogs have, on the whole, been much less interested in the shock-horror reporting that dominates the British papers."
"So while the British press have been obsessed with who has been shagging who at the Spectator or where Charles and Camilla are going to tie the knot, most of the blogs I read have been discussing democratisation in the Middle East. Exactly who is dumbing down discourse?"

- "The Lonely Defense of the MSM," Running Scared: Observations of a former Republican
- "Most bloggers are probably going to take his essay as yet another "bash the bloggers" attack story. I would suggest that Jenkins is different - far more thoughtful, recognizing reality, and offering criticism which often has the ring of truth."
- "I think it's unfair to describe the blogosphere as uniformly conservative. However, if you look at which blogs get all of the attention from the supposedly "liberal" MSM, you can see why. Powerline is easily ten times as well known as Atrios among non-blog readers. It's sad that this is the type of brush being used to paint all bloggers, but understandable at the same time."
- "Owning a computer and starting a free blogger account doesn't immediately put you on the same team with Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts jr."
- "Newspapers cost money and blogs are free. This is not an accident. The old axiom is still true... you get what you pay for in most cases."

- I wonder why Jazz Shaw is still paying for his newspapers. Hasn't the internet made newspapers free to read (once you've bought a PC and paid for a connection - though WiFi networks mean you can often log on for nothing once you've paid £30.00 or so for the relevant gadget), and before the internet came along I seem to remember newspapers being freely available to read at the library which is free to join or simply walk into off the street.

Posted by Nick @ 19:29 GMT

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