Globe and Mail, page R19, June 3…
"Now here's the funny thing about weblogs: Bloggers are forever leery of what they call the "mainstream media" (or "the MSM" for short, which makes it sound either kinky or contagious). Webloggers see themselves as the new vanguard of democratic journalism, railing against elitist dinosaurs of print and broadcast.
"But the amount of original material on weblogs is surprisingly low. The Internet is always turning up new writing talent, but most weblogs fill up space by pointing to items on other weblogs and adding their own two cents. It amounts to an awful lot of commentary, and as it happens, the seed is usually an item from the hated mainstream media.
"Instead of 1,000 teenaged girls with diaries, the blogosphere is more like 1,000 grumpy dads watching the 6 p.m. news and complaining that the world is going to hell. Remember that the next time someone tells you that blogs are the future.
So: What does it mean to be Canadian? It means forwarding around American articles about us. Will weblogs bury the old media once and for all? Of course not. Then what would there be to blog about?"
Grumpy Response to Ivor Tossel
Thought you’d never notice. We of the vanguard of democratic journalism (you liken to grumpy dads) have been out here on our ancient donkeys across the moat now for some time. Did one of our teensy darts actually make it over the castle wall?
I can’t speak for my fellow cyber.scribes (a term I much prefer over “bloggers”), but while you express your constrained thoughts from the comfy confines of your establishment some of us out here really do manage to get up a gallop every once in a while into new territory. I suggest ‘constrained’ because it is patently clear that you toil in an environment and a culture which relies almost exclusively for its support on the whims of corporate advertisers.
For example, in the case of your competitor Canwest, a mega-player in the newspaper publishing industry of Canada, how many pro-Palestinian articles could one expect to find on page one while that conglomerate is owned by the Aspers? Would that Harry Rosen banner ad disappear from page one so as not to be splitting ink with any such stories supporting the Palestinian plight? Do you really think that a columnist who called for the establishment of a Palestinian state to include Jerusalem would last long in The Vancouver Sun or The National Post, Ottawa Citizen or Calgary Herald?
Given that the current global unrest is very much connected to the affairs of the Middle East, is it really too grumpy to suggest that the Aspers may be wielding too much political power through their newspapers deliberately biasing the readership toward accepting ideas and attitudes which impel the world toward more upheaval?
And what of The Globe and Mail? “With stations, news bureaus and offices in all of Canada’s major cities, Bell Globemedia employees are connected to local communities, ensuring that what interests Canadians – locally, nationally and internationally – makes it to the screen, into print and onto the Internet. More than $285-million over seven years has been allocated for the creation of new programming and support for organizations, educational institutions and associations in our industry.” That’s not chicken scratch. And again you’re tethered to and limited by the response of your advertisers, many of whom are clearly inclined to be right wing because they’re businesspeople. But you soldier on having taken the left side of the issues that The National Post in its unabashed elitism relentlessly throttles.
And that’s what I mean by ‘constrained.’ Both your organizations are beholding to the right wingnuts of our wearisomely greed-driven society and you really don’t have much in the way of wiggle room. (And what’s the point of a snake room if you can’t even wiggle?)
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