Showing posts with label despair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label despair. Show all posts

05 November 2008

Blears Shoots the Blogger Messengers

Quoth Hazel Blears:

"But mostly, political blogs are written by people with disdain for the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy.

"Until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair."

Well, darling, could it be that bloggers unearth scandals and hypocrisy because that's mostly what you and your chums in the government seem to generate? Could it be that a more affirmative kind of blogging will emerge once your government drops its own unending flood of cynicism and spin and lies?

Because - and here's the shocking truth, Hazel - nobody is stopping "new voices" from emerging in the blogosphere: that's it's beauty, entry is frictionless. The fact that there aren't any such voices, or that nobody reads them if there are, is because of the noxious atmosphere you and your mates have engendered. Essentially, politicians get the journalism they deserve, so you stand condemned by your own observations.

04 April 2006

Ozymandias in Blogland

A fascinating post on Beebo (via C|net): a list of the top 50 blogs, six years ago. It's interesting to see some familiar names at the top, but even more interesting to see so many (to me) unknown ones.

"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" was my first thought. My second, was to create a blog called "Ozymandias" on Blogger, so that I could link to it from this post. But somebody already beat me to it.

Its one - and only - post is dated Sunday, January 07, 2001.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!