Comments on Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: 'The News' Is No Longer Defined By Big Media

I'd rather chew my own balls off than give money t...

2006-07-11T12:17:00.000+01:00

I'd rather chew my own balls off than give money to Instayokel.

Carol42 is high if she thinks the Swift Boat stuff...

2006-07-07T22:55:00.000+01:00

Carol42 is high if she thinks the Swift Boat stuff had traction, and wasn't the typical old-as-the-dirt politics in the form of shooting dirty pool.

Blogs are already a place for disinformation from campaigns, from Thune's run for senate in South Dakota to the guys in Texas who hooked up the gay hooker Jeff Gannon as a White House press reporter before other bloggers tracked down his story.

The trouble with blogs and the distributed journalism they enable is that sometimes, blogworld is more fact-free than even the harried, pressured, lazy, budget-pressured MSM.

And sometimes it is truly breathtaking how in-depth coverage and analysis can be, break-downs well beyond the level of anything in the papers, and many more storys are broken on blogs than the papers ever admit.

BTW, Glenn's book might be good, but he has become a right ass, and a rigid partisan rather than the "anti-idiotarian" he began as.

I'd always assumed that all job-offers, bribes etc...

2006-07-06T23:48:00.000+01:00

I'd always assumed that all job-offers, bribes etc. were accepted, creating a kind of anti-integrity.

"That's where Blogging is opening up some of the b...

2006-07-06T21:50:00.000+01:00

"That's where Blogging is opening up some of the backchannels."

I thought that was Oaten's job?

Does the media have it's priorities right? It's?It...

2006-07-06T21:49:00.000+01:00

Does the media have it's priorities right?

It's?

It may not have its priorities right, but it does have spell-checkers... 41 bloggers make 41 comments, and not one can see the ironing.

Or is Holyrood simply too dull to blow up? So Tom...

2006-07-06T21:18:00.000+01:00

Or is Holyrood simply too dull to blow up?

So Tommy Sheridan (ex-Lab) goes to swingers clubs and engages in social intercourse with former escort girls.............tad banal..........couldn't he develop a taste in boys for variety ?

I mean we've had igniting curtains in hotels from MSPs............do they do anything bizarre ?

I'd like Guido to comment on the Local Government ...

2006-07-06T20:59:00.000+01:00

I'd like Guido to comment on the Local Government ombudsman, Parliamentary ombudsman, Financial ombudsman service, Information commissioner etc. We now seem to have a proliferation of quasi-legal authorities who take an inordinate number of months to start an investigation in to a complainant's case, heavily skew their verdicts against the general public, have backgrounds as ex-senior managers from the industries they're supposed to be scrutinising, are set up by acts of parliament which give them a free rein to decide when and when not they will look at a case, and have a job for life.

@Paul LinfordIf the politcal blogging world as we ...

2006-07-06T20:06:00.000+01:00

@Paul Linford

If the politcal blogging world as we know it became part of the mainstream Westminster establishment then I reckon a new one would emerge on the fringes to upset it.
You're right though, the msm just might get shunted out by the new kids on the block!

Having lived and served at sea from Hull, I am sur...

2006-07-06T18:24:00.000+01:00

Having lived and served at sea from Hull, I am surprised that no mention seems to have been made about the rumours that circulate in the Hessle Road area of Hull amongst older seamen who had served at sea with Prezza. Namely that Prezza didn,t spend too much time at sea because his Union business interfered it and when he was at sea the Tips always seemed to be lower than when he was ashore.

i thought id add my two cents. i normally lurk her...

2006-07-06T18:13:00.000+01:00

i thought id add my two cents. i normally lurk here... i run a blog, one of the earliest uk blogs around founded in feb 2000. we pull in about 160,000 - 170,000 visitors a month now which gives us a higher readership than the newstand mags in the field we're writing on. we very regularly scoop them on things and thats the secret of the success because though the media and their chums might not like us the people at various companies do read us and are only too willing to talk. i find though that MSM isnt really interested in what we publish. it took them two years to get around to writing on a story of something with a budget of 700 million, it was a huge story that made every broadsheet but only two years later! one journo even went as far as to say the site was worthless because it had little on it you couldnt find on other things, when i emailed him and pointed out that the other things were long before MSM had picked them up i never got a reply. every time we approach them and think "well why not freelance and get some money" MSM doesnt care about the news, they care about their pals in PR who they go for drinks with, their mutual masturbatory relationships and constant leak investigations into what we write. they are all eating out of the same trough of news management. when they do cover things after us they frequently get the facts wrong, the evening standard is the worst of all the rags. MSM is in a constant state of denial that the internet is changing things, its created the citizen journalist/publisher, which of course means big media will lose out because the rules of the game have changed and they dont know it. blogging isnt about a blog format that publishes what you already have, the bbc for example make this mistake. good blogging is about delivering good exclusive and fresh journalism (or gossip in the case of guido) via a new medium.

Re: the China Girl- so glad to hear someone told P...

2006-07-06T17:36:00.000+01:00

Re: the China Girl- so glad to hear someone told Prezza "Baby, just you shut your mouth."

When British blogging moves into the centre of Wes...

2006-07-06T17:33:00.000+01:00

When British blogging moves into the centre of Westminster village life, then the job offers will get really good. Will the blogstars remain in the Army of Davids when Goliath is giving them the chance to write their own ticket?

A very good question, Sero, and as Prodicus says, some won't be able to resist the inducement, as Guido evidently has. But there is a contradition here. If as Sero predicts, the blogging medium moves "to the centre of Westminster village life," then why is there an assumption that the MSM, rather than the bloggers, would be in control of that, especially given that MSM attempts to jump on the blogging bandwagon have met with such mixed success? RK speculates that the political blogosphere is going to end up becoming part of the establishment. Maybe he will be right. But isn't it just as likely that the political blogosphere will end up not being assimilated by the establishment, but replacing it?

When Crick, the BBC, Independent, Guardian, Mirror...

2006-07-06T17:16:00.000+01:00

When Crick, the BBC, Independent, Guardian, Mirror et al apply their work evenly to both sides of the House then perhaps the Bloggers might start to worry about that. The MSM is predominently leftie and institutionally anti Tory and in many cases, especially the BBC and Mirror, that extends to greater depths of abasement that mere acusations of cronyism.

The truth is that left wingers like anonymous 2.27pm are only whining because Guido won't succumb to the usual media bias in their favour. Hypocrites!

'I see Prezza's defenders suggest if Guido's comme...

2006-07-06T17:12:00.000+01:00

'I see Prezza's defenders suggest if Guido's comments re 3 shags were printed in a newspaper there would be a flurry of writs.'
So why didn't he sue the Sunday Times over Tricia McDaid's serious allegation, published on 30 April?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2158097,00.html
I quote:-
[McDaid] "alleged that John Prescott sexually harassed her over a two-year period".
..."McDaid also said that Prescott boasted he had a dossier of people in the Labour party who had slept with one another."

Now that IS a shocking allegation: that the DPM admitted he had gathered material with which - at least, that appears to be the strong implication of the statement - he could if necessary blackmail party colleagues. And he hasn't sued the Times about that either...

All these, largely anonymous, claims that the MSM ...

2006-07-06T17:10:00.000+01:00

All these, largely anonymous, claims that the MSM are somehow superior because they check their facts better than the Bloggers do is not of course borne out by the eveidence.I have two words for you on that one; Daily Mirror.

Keep up the good work Guido. Yes, the established ...

2006-07-06T16:58:00.000+01:00

Keep up the good work Guido. Yes, the established media are feeling a tad queasy. If sad little single issue spods like me can have a poke at the big game then so can anyone. There's an image of Prezzer in peril here: www.englandism.com/images/millenium-dome.jpg

My question is this: do you have any Scottish cous...

2006-07-06T16:31:00.000+01:00

My question is this: do you have any Scottish cousins, Guido? There is a full blown sex scandal involving one of Scotland's most colourful MSPs (literally and metaphorically) being played out in the libel courts uphere, but not a whole lot of scandal-mongering to go with it. Myself included, very few seem all that excited about it.

Or is Holyrood simply too dull to blow up?

"your work must apply to both sides of the house, ...

2006-07-06T15:46:00.000+01:00

"your work must apply to both sides of the house, or you'll be open to justified cries of tory cronyism"

why must it? You don't see (for example) the Spectator going out of their way to be nice to Labour, why should the rules be different for digital media?

The day Guido becomes a public service broadcaster is the day I stop reading.

Nadders said:"To be precise, Prezza said he'ed onl...

2006-07-06T15:43:00.000+01:00

Nadders said:

"To be precise, Prezza said he'ed only just got into writing letters!"

Next month he's moving on to words and maybe, if he's a good boy and studies hard, by the end of the year he'll be able to write whole sentences. Simple ones to start with of course; but who knows, in a few years he may even be able to write a short essay on what (or who) he did during the holidays.

RM

RK - Private Eye prints stories journalists cannot...

2006-07-06T15:34:00.000+01:00

RK - Private Eye prints stories journalists cannot get past their sub-editor.

I mean how could the Mail write anything critical of Stephen Lawrence when Paul Dacre had Lawrence Sr as his decorator ?

How could The Guardian write anything critical of Tessa Jowell when Rusbridger is a friend of her on/off husband; and his wife is a university friend of his wife ?

I mean how much does Fleet Street keep quiet about ? We rarely hear about lesbians and Freemasons in politics but there are quite a few............did we hear much about Reggie Maudling, Operation Countryman and John Poulson plus Freemasonry in the 1970s - no we did not.

That's where Blogging is opening up some of the backchannels. Mandelson was not employed to put stories in the pres but to keep them out.

He kept out Ron Davies walk on the wild side, and lots of other strange goings on until after the election.........

Open to unjustified cries...do Warnings of the gre...

2006-07-06T14:51:00.000+01:00

Open to unjustified cries...do

Warnings of the great risks to noble bloggers are probably founded in truth. We can't deny that blogging has allowed the whole inevitable system to become much more dynamic and therefore, as the rot can stick around for less time, much better.

Guido,why so at odds with big media dogs holed up ...

2006-07-06T14:27:00.000+01:00

Guido,

why so at odds with big media dogs holed up in annies bar and tied into the lobby system? You've presented a new source by which the lobbyists can break a story without compromising their code. However, your work must apply to both sides of the house, or you'll be open to justified cries of tory cronyism.

Have you sent a complimentary copy to Nick Robinso...

2006-07-06T14:21:00.000+01:00

Have you sent a complimentary copy to Nick Robinson? If the cost is too high I'd be prepared to split the bill with you.

Well done - great work exposing (if that's the bes...

2006-07-06T14:06:00.000+01:00

Well done - great work exposing (if that's the best word) Presocott. Meanwhile the tumbleweed is rolling through Conservativehome as 'the editor' maintains a lofty silence...the only option as he's been left standing teehee.

"I see Prezza's defenders suggest if Guido's comme...

2006-07-06T13:59:00.000+01:00

"I see Prezza's defenders suggest if Guido's comments re 3 shags were printed in a newspaper there would be a flurry of writes ... but because it's T'Internet the rules are different."

Clearly they have overlooked the case of UKIP member Michael Smith who successfully sued someone for accusations of Nazism she made on an online forum.