Defending the blogosphere
Bloggers can go to excess, but political blogging as a whole is beneficial to our society. Why? Bloggers can go further than the standard media in suggesting new and innovative ways at looking at problems. They can reject each others' ideas as having gone too far or being impractical, and most importantly they can confirm and add to the ideas of the blogger....
On that point, Radwanski says that newspapers cannot give a specific viewpoint except in the editorial column... he is wrong.
...The choice of what subjects are newsworthy, the prominence and positioning of information in the article and the headlines attributed to the article all clearly set out a viewpoint. The same concept is true for radio and television, as is most clearly shown by the CBC's anti-Bush stance.
So, I will read both, the blogs with their obvious passionate viewpoint, as well as the newspapers with their not-so-well hidden agenda.
Jonathan Usher, Toronto.
Excellent points, Jonathan!
BTW, an interesting rebuttal by RightGirl, H/T Rempelia Prime.
Gabby has also made some great observations in comments on my preceding post.
13 comments:
I blog because I am tired of the MSM telling us what they want us to see...
Most read my blog and are shocked at what they learn..
Sara, that's right. You tell the side of the story that special interest groups often try to hide or misrepresent.
Blogs are fascinating. They're a little raw now, but their a new phenomenon.
Mr. Radwanski should recall, for many of us, the Liberal party has set the acid tone of Canadian political discourse over the last 10 years. The military ads most recently, the debate in 2004, etc., etc.,
(Of course, the ads that made fun of Jean Chretien's face were equally bad).
I'm not sure blogging should be held entirely responsible for the degeneration of politeness in politics.
Another likely cause - I seem to remember a column from Mr. Radwanski in 2004 called: "Do Conservatives Like Canada?"
Does that help the tone of debate?
Good points, Chucker! And Mr. Radwanski's op-eds are usually far from unbiased, as you have noted.
"I'm not sure blogging should be held entirely responsible for the degeneration of politeness in politics."
What degeneration? When we learned about Hansard in civics, the copy we had was filled with examples of
Some Honourable Members: Oh, Oh.
Try google 'hansard "Oh. Oh."' and you will find 132,000 hits.
Though I do wish we had more of the quality skewering we read about from Churchill...
I blog... therefore, I am!!
Actually, I should spend a bit of time and draft up something for my poor lame-duck blog before the Blog Gods smite me for inactivity.
Try google 'hansard "Oh. Oh."' and you will find 132,000 hits.
Hear, hear! *Guffaw* *Sound of hands wrapping on desk*
Yes, Mr. "Right on the Left Coast", let's see some action! You must have a lot to say. I would be a regular reader! ;) Seriously, Mac. It doesn't have to be anything profound or even political. You can just talk about the weather; which BTW is oppressive here in Ontario at the moment, and my dear husband is going to be dragging me out the door any minute now for another brutal power walk. Help!!!!!!
I blog b/c I want to inform the world of so-con news (with a Canadian slant) and Lifesite can't do it by itself.
Suzanne, you are providing a valuable service.
We've degenerated from "fuddle duddle" and the finger?
L.S. - and "Let them eat cake!"
Wow... look!! A comment on !!
I still can't figure out how to add Enig-Mac onto my profile. HTML hates me.
Dang... run one coding again...
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