As the Murdoch press descends to ever greater heights of triviality in its campaign against the Rudd government’s “media management” (Oh noes! Not only won’t Kevin Rudd go on Insiders, he also “snubbed” a Japanese tv station - Japanese diplomats are angry!), humanities academic David Burchell from the University of Western Sydney, perhaps the last commentator from the not very lamented Whitlam Institute left standing, weighs in with an attack on the blogosphere. Gary Sauer-Thompson’s summary tells us all we need to know:
He says that we should leave the splenetically challenged Western bloggers to mud-wrestle among themselves, since their aspiration for freedom is just a pose or a lifestyle choice. Western bloggers would include Australian ones.
Note what is going on here. There is no attempt by Burchell to engage with any Australian political blogger. All are condemned and tossed into the waste bin without any argument. Burchell’s position is one in which the reasoned arguments of Australian political bloggers on public issues is characterised by pseudo-expertise and vituperation whilst the rants and raves of the News tabloid bloggers is marked by expertise and reason.
Burchell, in so reversing the actual state of affairs, has shown himself to be a Murdoch hack running the Australian’s party line against the independent media. Their credibility must be destroyed to save that of the journalists at News Ltd.
…like the journo at the centre of the incredible weekend anti-Rudd tirade, no doubt. Crikey has some interesting background on John Lyons.
Elsewhere: More from Tim Lambert, who detects some payback from David Burchell.
“Perhaps we should leave those splenetically challenged Western bloggers to mud-wrestle among themselves. Instead I’d invite you to savour the gentle delights of blogging in those corners of the world where the aspiration for freedom isn’t yet a pose or a lifestyle choice, and where words really do carry consequences.”
Yuck, the thought of certain Western bloggers mud-wrestling isn’t pleasant.
I can understand what he is saying to some degree. After all, there are bloggers living in countries like Iran who risk much more than being called a “luvvie”. Often they speak from a more thoughtful and reasoned voice, perhaps because they have no choice. There’s a lot of lot of hot air and rubbish on blogs (we all know that so it’s hardly a revelation - I happened upon a blog the other day which seemed to be authored by a paranoid barely literate woman with some kind of “Pauline” complex).
It was six seconds of my life I’ll never get back, and it wasn’t pretty. She was part of a rather well-known (as these things go) blogging group.
It should be said that there are also very intelligent, thoughtful and interesting voices who wouldn’t otherwise be heard if it wasn’t for blogs. At any rate, the separation between the mainstream media and the blogosphere is hardly as pronounced as it used to be.
We all know that so it’s hardly a revelation - I happened upon a blog the other day which seemed to be authored by a paranoid barely literate woman with some kind of “Pauline” complex.
Tell us more. Was it that horrible Camden woman with the hat made out of Australian flags?
Instead I’d invite you to savour the gentle delights of blogging in those corners of the world where the aspiration for freedom isn’t yet a pose or a lifestyle choice, and where words really do carry consequences.
AKA “Yew people wouldn’t be able to wave those placards in the street in EYE-RACK, Missy!” that we used to get in the olden street-demonstrating days.
How dare we actually take advantage of living in a country with (relative) freedom of speech, association and written expression, to actually, you know, speak, write or associate. We peasants should just consume (their writing), be silent, die.
Ha! I resemble that op-ed. But guess what? Should western society slide into anti democracy (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) I’ll still be here shooting my mouth off and fighting for social democracy and liberalism, including defending Burchills right to make an absolute jackass of himself.
I presume in such a scenario Burchill will be the defender of the ststus quo, nothing more than a Govt shill mouthing propaganda disguised as news…..oh hang on!
Somehow this guy misses the point that blogging is, first and foremost, fun. Political or otherwise. But I suppose that’s a shallow Western way to look at it. OTOH, if we did help bring down the Howard Government and we keep Rudd on track or give him a kick up the bum when he needs it,so he ignores Rupert and company, I can understand why the Ex-GG is so upset.
descend(s) to … heights
There’s a crack-pipe motto waiting to be engraved.
I don’t know who she was, I didn’t stick around long enough to see. She was part of some collaborative Australian effort.
Anyway, the wonderful thing about living in a democracy is that you can say what you want (within reason) without getting your bits chopped off, and everyone else is free to ignore you if you talk crap or have no talent. The thing is that there is wonderful professional stuff out there and there is wonderful DIY stuff out there and there’s also crap professional stuff and crap DIY stuff.
One could compare it to the theatre: I’ve seen some amateur stuff that’s been far more entertaining than some stuff I’ve paid heaps to see at the MTC.
Firstly a minute’s silence for Darlene. We have all “been there” and no matter what our backgrounds, can share her shock and grief for a moment.
Those poor little seconds!
Yes, for something that “doesn’t matter”, the blogosphere and current affairs blogging in particular ocupies their minds mightily. If it’s not Blair slandering someone, its a blogsite censored for being real, as with Jack Marx or Tim Dunlop, or them interceding with politicians to have the things banned ( like in Iran?).
Will never forget the sight of the Poisoned Dwarf up and angrily demanding of Conroy that bloggers be stamped on, at a televised press club luncheon during the lead up to the last election.
*sniff* I haven’t seen “TeH bloggers aren’t experts like us op-eders” meme since the ALP won the election, it really is a sophisticated argument.
It is of course well documented that Federation Fellows etc woud never ever wade into the blogosphere. Oh, and you’d never see an Ivy Leaguer or Oxbridge grad within 100 miles of teh intertubes.
Update - more here:
[link]
Unlike the “professional” mob employed by the Murdochs, who must go in such fear of getting the line wrong and (gasp, horreur..) Losing Their Jobs. They are the brave ones.
Elsewhere: More from Tim Lambert, who detects some payback from David Burchell.
Happily, reports on LP of the Whitlam Institute’s decline are exaggerated. Actually, we are thriving with an active program building on Gough Whitlam’s public policy work.
We’ve even made it to YouTube with highlights of our current Energy Security series being featured. You can read all about what we’re up to at our website.
Op-ed writers slamming bloggers seems to be de rigueur these days. Even out here in the sticks one of the writers for the local rag has taken a shot at the unnamed ‘local bloggers’ who are apparently peddling nothing but lies and inuendo. Ray Dixon responded to it best, while I meandered as usual.
I think that there is a genuine fear in the media that blogs are taking away a lot of their power and the ability to set the agenda. Excellent analysis like that provided by Possum Comitatus punches holes in the arguments made by the ‘experts’. We’re beginning to look behind the curtain, and the old guard wizards don’t know how to react.
Burchell: a Communist turned Foucauldian (hence a fascination with procedures and processes rather than outcomes) turned who knows what (I suspect en route to fully fledged conservatism Gary Johns style). I think he is overcome with regret that he didn’t make Belinda Neal’s political choices in the 1980s so he could now be a Labor MP rather than an unhappy academic with a mid-life crisis.
Update: John Quiggin’s take on Burchell.
El Gibbs wrote
Pathetic! The Institute is struggling to bribe UWS staff to attend their much-vaunted Energy Security lecture series. El Gibbs, remind me how many emails have been sent to UWS staff urging them to attend? Your peers don’t give a toss about you, and your invocation of Gough is preposterous.