Andrew Marr, the BBC's political presenter, has dismissed bloggers as "inadequate, pimpled and single" loners who rant about the world from the safety of their mothers' basements.
"Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all," he told a Cheltenham Literature Festival audience. Warming to his theme, he continued:
A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people.
OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk. But the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night.
It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism...
Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. It is vituperative. Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things on line that they wouldn't dream of saying in person.
Perhaps Andrew should come to Bristol on 22 October to speak at the Festival of Ideas debate on blogging. A contribution on the lines of the one above should enliven the discussion entitled What's the blogging story?
But I'm surprised at the Marr assault because he is usually so thoughtful. Aside from the paradox of him indulging in a rant to complain about other ranters, it is the one-sidedness of his argument that is so striking.
None of us who write blogs are unaware of vituperative contributions from people who like to remain anonymous (see my threads, for example).
It's the price we pay - a small price, in my view - for a communications system that allows for public participation.
He seems to be damning the whole blogosphere when, as we all know, there are thousand upon thousand of bloggers who are making valuable public interest contributions on the net day by day, even hour by hour.
Marr, to use an archaic but apposite idiom, simply can't see the wood for the trees.
Source: Daily Telegraph
