Friday, March 11, 2005
17th CENTURY PURITANS ONLINE
The London 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.
“Respect for the disciplines of journalism” may have been useful for Jenkins, who is set straight by Scott Burgess.
UPDATE. Blue in comments:
He should have mentioned jackboots. Also pajamas.
Pajama wearing Puritans in jackboots.
That just makes me hot.