Yesterday the ‘sphere was all a-twitter with reaction to John Armstrong’s rant at “parasitical bloggers”. Edwards and Campbell, the targets of Armstrong’s misguided spleen, have both replied, let’s hope that’s the end of the celebrity gossip angle.
But Campbell, who is in my opinion the best journalist / commentator in NZ by a country mile, did much more than just reply. His piece is, as usual, a long and thoughtful exploration of the issues. In particular his discussion of “objective journalism” and “evaluative journalism” is very useful, a framework which helps to organise and understand the roles of different kinds of commentary and the ongoing transition from old fashioned journalism as closed-shop clique to the citizen journalism of the Net.
One of the nice things about being an amateur parasitical blogger is that I don’t have to try and pretend to be anything I’m not. On this occasion I’m not going to quote any extracts or add my own “words of wisdom”, because I think the whole article is well worth reading, and it speaks for itself. On this, and on so many other topics, do yourself a favour, go read Gordon Campbell.
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