Role of Blogging / Broken News - no comments

A typically intelligent article at Talk Politics to continue the debate on the role of blogging, and highlight our opportunity to disinfect the poisoned well from which politicians and the media both drink.

Dreams of changing the world through blogging are rather premature, although things may change in future should we enter a period where governments are much less secure in their parliamentary majorities and more inclined, therefore, to consider alternate viewpoints and make compromises which reflect a broader range of opinions that at present. Nevertheless bloggers can, taking on board Robin Cook's critique, exert an influence over the direction and tone of political discourse in the UK and offer a counterpoint to the existing politician/press relationship.

Over time it may be possible to build relationships with the political elite in which original thinking on their part is rewarded rather than attacked for being off-message; where it comes to be understood that the UK blog scene offers an arena where serious politics can be debated in a mature, rational and adult manner.

Do people see this changing in the future? Could it be that politicians increasingly rely upon non-partisan bloggers, who lack the commercial pressures of the MSM (MainStream Media), for reasoned arguments? Is there a chance that bloggers become co-opted into politics and the MSM - as paid journalists, or members of Think Tanks - and the independent community dwindle? Will bloggers continue to cherish their freedom - of thinking, and of their own free time - and ability to keep a broad view, or is it possible that partisanship will squeeze independence out so that blogging becomes inseperable in spirit and in kind from the MSM?

Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, we have a paean for political cynicism at The First Post.

It's probably not a good idea to read their 300-word articles after watching BBC2's Broken News. After half-an-hour of spoof headlines, News-speak, catchphrases, and non sequiturs, sentences like these become comedy:

His mother, I am told, sometimes calls him Dave [David Cameron],
as did some broadcasters last week but that seems to be about it.

The problem for inflation watchers is that economic forces no longer all pull in the same direction.

Being compelled to make francophone friends in some desk-filled chateau hundreds of miles from home would certainly cure the motivation problem, but at what psychological cost, let alone monetary?