13 July 2006

Bloggers and the News Media - again

Get your news online first. The bloggers have taken over the agenda. First it was Prezza-gate, then it was Cheri Blair signing a copy of the Hutton Report for auction, and now its Sleazy Levy. All of these stories were broken first by Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale - neither of them in anybody's pay, but both of them committed to revealing corruption and graft in public life. Last night we had the pathetic sight of BBC's Nick Robinson on TV, reporting in excited tones on a story which had been broken by the bloggers from under his nose weeks ago - and which he had pooh-poohed as mere gossip in the meantime.

Comparisons with Watergate plus Bernstein and Woodward have been drawn already - and I don't think they are so fanciful, as the possibility of the Prime Minister being interviewed by the police draws closer. Whatever happens politically, the nature of the news media is changing before our very eyes.

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