13 October 2010

Andrew Marr should do his job

Instead of criticising bloggers Andrew Marr should be doing his job and criticising the government. Doesn't he realise how he and the rest of the media are being manipulated by the ruling class? That's why we need bloggers. We need bloggers to flag up when we are heading in the wrong direction or at least to point out that there are other ways in which things might be done. It's certainly true of the health service but you wouldn't know from the media. You have to rely on mavericks like the pimpled medical bloggers or the late Clare Rayner whose dying words she wanted to be:

Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS, I’ll come back and bloody haunt him.
Clare Rayner could see what was happening. And she cared. It is a shame people like Andrew Marr do not seem to grasp the enormity of what is happening, don't seem to care and fail to challenge politiicians over their misguided plans for the NHS.

Fortunately there are those who grasp what is happening and can muster cogent arguments. Karen Jennings is an example. You can listen to her interview on the Today programme this morning here.

6 comments:

Julie said...

Bet he's got a book launch..

Anonymous said...

Agree. All bloggers provide is an alternative and democratic point of view. And it's hardly difficult to weed out the trolls from the well-informed comments, is it?

Marr responds to "angry, abusive and vituperative" citizen journalists with a series of knowingly inflammatory statements which are angry, abusive and vituperative. O-kaaay.

A shame, because the point he was making about the need for us to recognise the economic value of accurate, professional news gathering and dissemination is a valid one. Instead, we get this tawdry, headline-grabbing tar-everyone-with-the-same-brush blunderbuss approach.

Here are my thoughts on Marr's comments. I would welcome your comments, as long as they're not angry, abusive or vituperative, of course! ;-)

http://slouchingtowardsthatcham.com/2010/10/13/in-defence-of-bloggers-an-open-letter-to-andrew-marr/

Dr Spock said...

Amongst the reasons he dislikes blogging is that bloggers such as guido Fawkes are wont to mention that he is married to jackie Ashley, guardian editor so not the impartial political editor that he is supposed to be. He also has an injunction against the mainstream media for some rather fruity misdemenors in the past. Pimply and inadequate? Pot, kettle?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Andrew Marr should consider how frustrating and difficult it is for the majority of us who never get the opportunity to speak to those who make decisions on our behalf.

He gets the chance to interview them, but instead of asking the probing well informed questions that we would like him to, he gives them such an easy ride they are lining up to appear on his Sunday morning programme.

Thus he and his fellow political journalists cosy up to the politicians, because they want and need to be inside that world with them, while the rest of us are left outside.

Is it any wonder that most of us have to resort to blogging?

English Pensioner said...

For most of my life since I started work, I have always bought a daily newspaper, but of late I'm beginning to wonder whether it is worth while. The news rarely tells you any more than has already been on television, and the comment is becoming shallow and rarely well thought out. Foreign news coverage is now virtually non-existent even in the so-called quality newspapers except when disaster strikes, and hard facts are very hard to discover.
The Blogs provide an alternative with news and facts from around the world.
For example, today Biased BBC tells us how the safe rescue of the Chilean miners was almost entirely due to U.S. expertise, drills and rigs. Has any of the media actually mentioned this? Unless the MSM starts to give us all the news, not just what they would like us to hear, it will be responsible for it's own demise.

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