Thursday, March 29, 2007

Guido and the Monkey: Do bloggers have their own sense of accountability?

The Dead Tree Press charge against the increasing influence of bloggers is often that we have no rules regarding what we write and no concern for the law. With the exception of those of us that hold, or run for, office, bloggers have very little to fear if they gets things wrong or upset people.

Yet I think the past few weeks have somewhat laid that one to rest - bloggers may not have laws dictating what we can or cannot do, but I now believe there is a level of e-accountability.

Poor Alex Hilton (aka Recess Monkey) got into hot water when he upset everybody on the right of politics by declaring that Thatcher had died, when dear old Maggie was alive all along. He got rightly abused and, as a result, a great many people (myself included) now don't visit his site. You'll notice I won't even link to him ... if your hits fall, credibility sinks and you decend into irrelevance.

Guido's mauling on Newsnight last night was a similar fate for Paul Staines. Guardian hack Sir Michael White gave him a sound thrashing - with a chortling Paxo on stand-by - and his idiotic insistance on anonymity looked foolish. As an avid reader of his site, I do now find my confidence battered. I wonder how many people will stop reading him as a result?

You see, it isn't true to say that bloggers can say what we like and be damned ... there probably won't be court cases and writs issued, but a loss in confidence and credibility hits equally hard.

Guido and the Monkey are down, but certainly not out. But they'll both have to work hard to build up again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't want you to be lonely on your own in cyberspace! You need to keep upto date with posting dear boy or else your constituents will be begin to revolt. We want you Anthony but we need to see a regular presence online. Nothing more will suffice from the glorious leader of the Conservatives of Norwich Council

Anonymous said...

You really are sad Antony. I'm pleased to say that not linking to top blogs will NOT put them out of business - just make you look petty. And it assumes that people come to your blog to be informed anyway.

Own goal I reckon - but at least it put you in the 15 minute of fame limelight. Hope you enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

Little - you really do have far too much time on your hands! HFO

Antony said...

Paul -

Despite some heavy competition I really do think that yours was the supidest comment ever to be posted on this blog or, I suspect, many others.

I boycott certain blogs like people boycott supermarkets etc - it does work, actually, and I am taking that first small step - against Recess Monkey, not Guido it must be pointed out!

If it makes me look petty then don't read my blog ... and I wonder why people do visit my blog? If not be be informed then why?

Own goal - hardly ... maybe you should start a boycott of my blog? LOL

Anonymous said...

Michael White isn't a knight. That's a joke, btw.