Saturday, March 12, 2005

Bloggers Versus The Media

Scott Burgess does a great job of fisking Simon Jenkins's dismissive article on bloggers.

Have I been "quaking" lately? Has anyone noticed this site displaying a tendency to "rant, muckrake [or] scream like 17th-century Puritans?"

I only ask because that's the behaviour that the Times' Simon Jenkins ascribes to bloggers, a group that he lazily treats as a single entity, ideologically and behaviourally speaking. Mr. Jenkins' assessment reveals both a laughable ignorance and a rather touching fear of the blogging phenomenon - and, incredibly, manages to combine hypocrisy and plagiarism in a single sentence. Here's his characterisation:


Be sure to read the whole thing for it clearly illustrates one of the best services bloggers provide - fact checking. While Jenkins is on his high horse dismissing bloggers he makes the mistake that bloggers live to catch - factual errors. Jenkins has this to say:

Most of the blog sites regurgitate and spin what the mainstream media (dismissively the “MSM”) has spent millions finding and checking

After Scott's post reveals the factual errors in Jenkin's article, the Times should ask Jenkins for their money back.
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