Blog power, exported
Bloggers have had their trophies in the U.S. Now they nearly have a head on the wall in the UK with the case of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and a tie to an American rich guy, not to mention a few alleged sexual escapades (damn, the Brits know how to do political scandal: naked). The Guardian has a look at the saga with pissy quotes from jealous big-media guys and a wonderful response from blogger “Guido Fawkes,” one of the attackers:
Go to the Oxford Union and ask our future political class who they read more often - the Times’ Peter Riddell or Guido Fawkes’ blog? Next ask them who they trust more? It is no contest. With 200,000 hits a month and rising, my politics blog is more trusted than the Times’ pompous political columnist.
See also Guardian Unlimited editor Emily Bell on the bloggers and scandal.
Tags: Weblogs
July 11th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Jeff, Excellent post and on an issue I am following closely. I just did a post (linking to yours of course) that shows searches for “guido fawkes” versus “peter riddell”. Also interesting, search terms that include the word “john prescott” also all related to the scandal of his affairs, not the supercasino business.
July 11th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
[...] We may point to Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes and I like how Guido irks so many because of his readership as Jeff Jarvis points out but taking down someone that needs to be taken down is not enough. All that does is make the rest cover their tracks more. There’s less than a handful of bloggers who have actually contributed to real life campaigns and initiatives to make changes. I respect them and will allow them to influence me. The rest I see as spoiled kids stamping their feet when not getting their way. Until that changes then blogging for change will be futile. [...]