Times columnist and combative new-Labour neo-con Oliver Kamm has a crack at Bloggers in The Guardian today. He says:
It is a democratic medium, allowing anyone to participate in political debate without an intermediary, at little or no cost. But it is a direct and not deliberative form of democracy. You need no competence to join in.
Unlike the journalism of The Times presumably Oliver where you’re all so damned competent?
Kamm neglects to mention in his tirade how he got his job at the national newspaper. He went to Oxford, worked for the Bank of England, set up his own investment bank then used his family contacts to get The Times gig. His uncle is Martin Bell and his grandfather also worked for the paper.
The blogosphere, in short, is a reliable vehicle for the coagulation of opinion and the poisoning of debate. It is a fact of civic life that is changing how politics is conducted – overwhelmingly for the worse, and with no one accountable for the decline.
We better leave politics to Oxbridge investment bankers with family contacts and some time on their hands then hadn’t we Oliver?
Incidentally Kamm has a blog where he engages in reliably high-minded, uncoagulated opinion and unpoisonous debate such as attacking Jeremy Paxman’s partner’s 94 year old aunt.