Thursday, February 26, 2009

Blogging: A Load of Incontinent Drivel?

There was a discussion on the Today Programme this morning about the shortlist for the Orwell Prize between Jean Seaton and Hopi Sen. Listen to it HERE.

Jim Naughtie reckons Orwell would have been a blogger.

Discuss.

UPDATE: There's also a related article HERE on the Today website.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gordon Brown 'rebuked' by Commons 'sleaze watchdog' for subletting his taxpayer funded office.

Hard to see that this is any different from Spellman. Except that Brown is also accused of dragging his feet before responding to complaints. Nothing new there then.

I am sure my blogging is drivel - but as for anybody else's, I could not possibly comment.

Oldrightie said...

Only Labour blogging is drivel aka Dollybot. Blogging is becoming "the word down the pub...." since Labour have all but destroyed those social gatherings.

Plato said...

Well mine certainly is :)

But then again most of the cutunpaste page-fillers in the MSM are too so I'm in exhaulted company.

I've read much more amusing, cutting and searing analysis by clicking on one of the Daily Dozen or the followers of other bloggers than I'd find in a month's worth of the usual suspects.

Benny said...

Shouldn't that be 'A load...'?

Shaun Austin said...

I do find it interesting that the world of "political" blogging seems to be of the view that they invented and there is a slight tendency towards almost asserting some kind of moral ownership of the thing.

What concerns me is that as yourself on other political bloggers are granted more and more "access" you're actually blurring the distinction between yourselves and what you call "MSM". In fact, between the Mag and TV appearances, you're starting to look more like a journalist/pundit who blogs rather than the other way around.

Not that that is a bad thing, just an observation.

Iain Dale said...

Shaun, I have never bought the distinction to be honest. I was doing TV, radio and writing stuff long before I started blogging. The two mediums are not mutually exclusive.

It's nothing to do with access. I don't attend press conferences, or lobby briefings and never will. Any access I have is because of what I do generally, not because I blog.

Shaun Austin said...

Iain, fair point. I wasn't trying to be critical or make a personal dig. Just making an observation that political blogging in general seems to be moving into the mainstream itself and I can see that increasing over time.

gutted said...

A blog a day helps you work, rest ... .... Its spreading,its getting better and there are some very good ones around now. The dead tree press will suffer as quicker and better exposure of real stories just fly around the blogs.