This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 11:33 am and is filed under Old Media.


Oliver Kamm – A parody of democracy (mirror)

Blogs are providers not of news but of comment?

Sorry, but facts, facts, facts lurk here, despite my also making clear my opinion when I reveal those facts. These facts were not reported in the mainstream press, and *not* because of any difficulty in proving facts. An information gap exists and a responsibly-run weblog can help to fill that gap.

Also, there’s nowt wrong with opinion when it is introduced into conversation/debate. Not all weblogs play the Fox News game of blurring the line between news and editorial content.

Finally, the ‘narrowed view’ Oliver Kamm mentions can result from self-selection, but usually results from self-serving censorship… like that conducted at Iain Dale’s ‘blog’ and that of Paul Staines (where ‘debate’ is forbidden outright). So here I would argue that there *are* parties that are accountable for the decline… especially as Kamm himself uses one of these weblogs as an example of blogging. This is a growing community, often shaped by perception.

Septicisle also has some thoughts on this article.