I find it a rather remarkable argument from one whose rise to the
punditoracy was in fact driven by his own political blogging. Smacks of pulling
up the ladder rather.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Oliver Kamm Pulls Up the Ladder
I was going to fisk Oliver Kamm's ridiculous ARTICLE in The Guardian today where he lays into bloggers, but, you know, life's too short. Kamm is where he is because he used to write an interesting blog. He doesn't anymore. His writing style is tedious in the extreme and he doesn't even allow comments. Luckily the Reactionary Snob has done my job for me, HERE. Tim Worstall is also none to impressed HERE. He concludes...
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, political blogs tend not to enhance but poison healthy debate
-Kamm
What a load of bollocks. The blogosphere is the ONLY place where any genuine political debate is going on! Kamm should take his head out of his arse. It's not our fault nobody reads his blog anymore.
Also he has that dreadful pic of himself. Menswear salesman.
Iain, I posted on Oliver's attitude in my first week of blogging last year [July 31st] and have e-mailed him about it.
He has always felt this way - that the MSM is subject to strictures which the blogosphere is not and is more professional in its approach.
I partly agree but he ignores the top bloggers in his wide sweep. there are some shockers for sure - 'rants' the blogosphere calls them and these are often not journalism.
We know about the Guido fiasco.
However, there are some top blogs such as I'm writing on now and Tim Worstall, plus many of the Blogpowerers, e.g. Notsaussure and these are class acts, make no mistake.
Oliver, [a friend of mine], is wrong on this matter.cmrobss
Good comment Iain. And there is an amazing variety of political blogs out there so to tar everyone with the same brush is a bit stupid- I know what he means about the debate when it gets to the level of just chucking insults- but on the other hand there are plenty of blogs which enhance the debate. Blogs like yours from people actually inside the loop- or blogs that recycle academic work into an accessible form.
Oliver Kamm obviously finds other people's opinions something of a nuisance - he didn't realise anyone else was allowed to have views contary to his own. He seems to feel he's doing us proles a favour by allowing us to read his golden words. The thing is, Oliver, I'd never heard of you or your blog before today, and now I've had a look at it, I realise how fortunate I was.
You've no worries there, Iain - certainly no competition. The man can't write - he is dull, opinionated and boring, a fatal combination.
I've always assumed that his denunciations of bloggers, usually followed by a link to his own blog, are a self-mocking joke.
If you don't like ablog you don't read it I guess. Your readership figures, Guido's ConHome would all make a few newspaper editors quite jealous especially if you equated cost of production to readers obtained.
If you don't like politicalblogs there is a simple solution - don't read them.
As for the comment that blogs don't enhance debate I am sure you could list more than on ocassion where you have actually started a debate later to be picked up by the media.
I am sure you could list more than on ocassion where you have actually started a debate later to be picked up by the media.
This has become a particularly true in politically-media-starved Wales. Without the blogosphere here no-one would know anything except what Labour tells them.
Kamm is a very powerful man, embracing both The Henry Jackson Society and the Euston Manifesto, i.e., both halfs of the junta behind the merger of the political parties in all but name on the foreign, fringe and now failed basis that is neoconservatism.
Thus, Kamm is one of the great and the good of British journalism, who, in league with the great and the good of British politics, determine both what the rest of us are permitted to know in terms of political news, and what the rest of us are permitted to think in terms of political comment.
And that's exactly how he wants it to stay.
Yes, there's a lot of rubbish on blogs. There's also a lot of rubbish in the Press and on the BBC. And at least the rubbish on blogs varies. The rubbish in the traditional media is all the same, thanks to Kamm and his friends, our Straussian lords and masters.
Nobody seems to remember it was a blog that got Clinton impeached. Blogs are not irrelevant, and they are not inconsequential. Although maybe Kamm's is.
To be fair to the man, Oliver Kamm is the only leftie whose opinions I take seriously!
The Guardian appears to have stopped accepting comments on most of their main comments. I guess all too often they found that they are out of sync with their readers and are getting fried for inaccuracies or badly thought out ideas. Eh, what is the point of reading an opinion if you cannot at least heckle the writer and talk to other people about what you thought of it?
Yes, Oliver Kamm is wrong on this, he is rarely wrong about anything though. I was taken in as well, I thought it was a joke but seemingly not. But Guardian readers hate bloggers.
I hereby propose what I submit would be anything but a parody of democracy.
First, to those listed on the website of the Euston Manifesto, I dare those of you who are British Citizens to stand for Parliament next time (for any party or none) on that basis and to seek out other such candidates, I dare The Observer or whatever to publish the definitive constituency-by-constituency list of such candidates, and I dare all of you (British or not) to campaign for them in every way available to you.
So, over to you, Norman Geras, Damian Counsell, Alan Johnson, Shalom Lappin, Jane Ashworth, Dave Bennett, Brian Brivati, Adrian Cohen, Nick Cohen, Anthony Cox, Neil Denny, Paul Evans, Paul Gamble, Eve Garrard, Harry Hatchet, David Hirsh, Dan Johnson, Gary Kent, Jon Pike, Simon Pottinger, Andrew Regan, Alexandra Simonon, Richard Sanderson, “David T”, Philip Spencer, Jeffrey Alexander, Paul Anderson, Joe Bailey, Ophelia Benson, Paul Berman, Pamela Bone, Robert Borsley, Michael Brennan, Chris Brown, Julie Burchill, Mitchell Cohen, Marc Cooper, Thomas Cushman, Heather Deegan, Jon Fasman, Luke Foley, Raimond Gaita, Marko Attila Hoare, Quintin HoareAnthony Julius, Oliver Kamm, Sunder Katwala, Jeffrey Ketland, Matthew Kramer, Mary Kreutzer, John Lloyd, Denis MacShane MP, Kanan Makiya, John Mann MP, Jim Nolan, Will Parbury, Greg Pope MP, Thomas Schmidinger, Milton Shain, Hillel Steiner, Gisela Stuart MP, George Szirtes, Michael Walzer, Bert Ward, Morton Weinfeld, Jeff Weintraub, Francis Wheen and Sami Zubaida.
And secondly, to those listed on the website on The Henry Jackson Society, either as Signatories or as members of the Organizing Committee, I dare those of you who are British Citzens and not Peers of the Realm to stand for Parliament next time (for any party or none) on that basis and to seek out other such candidates, I dare The Times or whatever to publish the definitive constituency-by-constituency list of such candidates, and I dare all of you (British or not, Peers or not) to campaign for them in every way available to you.
So, over to you, Rt. Hon. Michael Ancram QC MP, Gerard Baker, Paul Beaver, Prof. Paul Bew, Prof. Vernon Bogdanor, Nicholas Boles, Damian Collins MP, Colonel Tim Collins, Prof. Paul Cornish, Sir Richard Dearlove OBE, Major-General John Drewienkiewicz, Mark Etherington, Sir Philip Goodhart, Michael Gove MP, Jonny Gray, Robert Halfon, Fabian Hamilton MP, Oliver Kamm, Jackie Lawrence, Prof. Andrew Lever, Dr. Denis MacShane MP, Fionnuala Jay O'Boyle MBE, Stephen Pollard, Greg Pope MP, Lord Powell of Bayswater, Andrew Roberts, David Ruffley MP, Dr. Jamie Shea, Dr. Irwin Stelzer, Gisela Stuart MP, Rt. Hon. Lord Trimble, Edward Vaizey MP, David Willetts MP, Prof. Alan Lee Williams OBE, Brendan Simms, Alan Mendoza, James M. Rogers, Gideon A. Mailer and Matthew Jamison.
Go on, I dare you!
I wondered why I had so many comments... thank you, Iain. Keep up the good work.
RS
PS - have finally worked out how to link things, and have, of course, linked to you.
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