Monday 11 October 2010

"Inadequate, pimpled and single"

Andrew Marr, lightweight writer and political journalist (he used to have a Telegraph column supposedly written by his hamster) doesn't think much of bloggers.

He calls blogging

the "spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night"

and suggests that


"Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all.
"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people," he told the Cheltenham Literary Festival. "OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk".


which suggests he's missing the point rather. I hate to disagree with the great man, but most bloggers aren't trying to be reporters - they're more like comment-piece journalists, only without the expensive training (private school, Cambridge, BBC) and multibillion-pound resources of a news organisation. Bloggers tend to have jobs, and to be expert in a narrow field. I am indeed often angry and drunk (has he ever read the Daily Mail?), but that doesn't make my opinions about The Klaxons, Paul Uppal Tory Scum and The Hegemon less valid. Does it?

Perhaps he doesn't like the fact that it's easier to serve a super-injunction on his fellow Big Media, whereas bloggers - who may indeed be angry and nasty - are harder to silence (read the comments, though it's not something I care about one way or the other).

Oh, and Marr seems not to understand the differences between blogging, news/politics blogging (most of us want to talk about books, music and in Ewar's case, mediocre tennis starlets) and anonymously commenting on news websites. If you want real pointless angry stupidity, try the comments section on any George Monbiot piece - such as this one.

6 comments:

Ewarwoowar said...

I am SO wound up right now Vole!

Did you see the piece on Ana in The Times Sports supplement this past Saturday? She's addicted to Su Doku....NERD.

PS. Whilst I don't like Marr, he's described me to a tee there, fair play to him.

The Plashing Vole said...

Excellent, I hit the spot!

Benjamin Judge said...

What I find most amazing is not that Marr has a dig at bloggers but that he brings physical appearance into the battleground. I am Johnny Depp compared to Andrew Marr.

Also Marr's recent record is far from impressive. That modern Britain thing was historically bland (though it was jam packed with hilariously, and in the case of Lloyd George, almost racistly, bad impressions of various politicians) and that Britain From The Air? Jesus. How to make a mockery of the licence fee while burning copious amounts of oil for no real reason. And that Sunday morning thing: how on earth do you manage to out lightweight David Frost?

I'm not an angry blogger Marr, I am just disappointed.

The Plashing Vole said...

Listen to Ben. He knows.

Benjamin Judge said...

Also. If Marr and his ilk are so great then how come they seem to have completely missed any short-comings in Uppal's credentials and motivations?

It seems that we do need bloggers after all, if only to do things as 'pointless' as worry about the people who are running the country.

Perhaps we could swap: 'Serious' journalists could cover Uppal, and bloggers can interview Salman Rushdie's son about his dad's new novel (that actually flipping well happened on Sunday)

The Plashing Vole said...

For feck's sake. That really is utterly ridiculous.
Your other point is good too: I'm local and tenacious - perfect qualities to hound people like Uppal, because I'm not being paid to do it.