I don’t tend to respond to this sort of thing, but this one pressed several of my buttons.
The so-called “citizen journalists” will never offer a real replacement to newspapers and television news, he told Cheltenham Literature Festival.
He said: “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.”
Sigh.
First point – the irony of Marr insulting people due to the appearance of physical features attached to their heads is hard to ignore.
Second – I’m no particular fan of journalism as a profession, especially given all the bleating about it that goes on in the mainstream media. Journalists write stuff down. There really isn’t that much that’s special about it. Lots of people can do it, and they are doing so. Get over it.
Thirdly, bloggers are angry ranters, are they? Has Marr read any of the columns that appear in newspapers every day of the week? Is he entirely unaware of the filth peddled by the likes of Jan Moir on a regular basis?
Finally, and the bit that really gets my goat: the lazy assumption that people who like computers are weird, scabby losers that hang out in their bedrooms all day long. I’ve said it before, but the fact that wearing ignorance of technology as a badge of honour is still acceptable these days is a disgrace, and it’s the sort of tosh that Marr is trotting out here that only encourages it.
“Angry rant” over.
+1.
+1 more
Sigh…
You were rather politer than I was… http://bit.ly/dv9gM9
He can now come here, to Norwich, and say it…
Ha, great stuff Rick! I wish him luck…
Not Andrew Marr. Painting human beings in with broad brush strokes with stereotyped lables. I always thought he was more complicated and considered. Was it a slip of the tongue? An off the cuff remark? A smug grin? An unconsciousness burst of prejudice and superiority. Maybe he needs to return to the coal face of journalism and an editing room.
Andrew Marr trying to out-do Andrew Keen?
I dread to think!
Oh come on. It’s hilarious. Another public figure reveals a propensity for bed wetting. Poor old Andrew. Had it. Lost it.
The BBC’s Robert Peston in a landmark lecture said that blogging was ‘at the heart of everything I do.’
Is Andrew getting a bit professionally catty, with his TV colleague then?
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/comment/robert-peston-on-the-future-of-news-journalism/5004998.article
Old school journalist swipes at ‘ranty’ bloggers… by having a good ‘ole rant…. perhaps it has more to do with the ‘love child’ story.
I think he might be in thrall to the pull of the mass media, and not understand how his reputation is Marred with such woolly complacency.
He completely ignores how much the MSM is driven by blog content etc. The only tenent of journalism which Marr can claim to have upheld here is that at least his post got a reaction…
Marr’s comments reflect a fear not only of new technologies, but also of the erosion of privileges they encourage: http://bit.ly/bkYMd2