Glenn Reynolds may have stirred up something: British Bloggers. I visit Petrona and Grumpy Old Bookman just about every day. But they're not poli blogs. Some of those Glenn mentions I visit from time to time.
The comments Glenn's post has generated are interesting. I like this, for instance, from JonnyB:
British bloggers write about their cats. And their favourite bands. And the bloke they shagged last night who they're not really sure about but are secretly desperate to get a call from. And the bad meal that they had in the restaurant down the road. And the horror of supporting Charlton FC. And finding their drunk neighbour crawling around on their roof.
Some of them write about politics and economics and technical IT stuff. I know these get a lot of publicity, being the kind of things that people who write newspapers are interested in, but you really do have to get out to the world at large a bit more.
But I do notice, what I often notice when reading comments about the U.S. from abroad, that people's opinions tend to run far ahead of their knowledge.
Hi Frank, I don't think I understand your last paragraph. Is it aimed at Glenn Reynolds or JonnyB?
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that JonnyB is a British blogger summarising what many British bloggers write about; and Glenn R is the "person from abroad" (i.e. the US) who is seeming to agree with those whose opinion runs far ahead of their knowledge (by saying British blogging is not active when it does in fact seem to be). Is anybody commenting "about the US" here?
Maybe I have misunderstood. I witness daily plenty of people whose opinions run far ahead of their knowledge with no US component involved -- but also occasions where there is a US component!
My writing was running ahead of my thinking, I fear. My last paragraph was meant to refer to other comments attached to Glenn's post. There was one political reference to the US and I had no idea what the guy was talking about - and I work for a newspaper!
ReplyDeleteOf course, you're right: the opinion-knowledge gap extends far beyond politics and the US.
I thought JonnyB's comment was right to the point - though Glenn pointed out that his knowledge was limited and that he was repeating what he had been told. He did not present himself as an expert on British blogs. I certainly hope JonnyB's right about British bloggers - blogging about their cats and so on. That would support a contention of mine: The political blogs get all the attention, but the other bloggers have all the fun.
(It is funny how Glenn Reynolds, who is not a conservative, gets tagged as one all the time. His book just got one of its less flattering - and more bizarre - reviews in a conservative journal).
Yes, Frank, you are right, there is a lot of rubbish written by British journalists about the US. And everything else. I'm with you there!
ReplyDeleteThere is a rather good book called "2005: Blogged" which I bought for a pound in my company's booksale at Christmas. It is a collection of British Blogs, edited by Tim Worthsall, who has a (quite successful) blog himself.
I enjoyed this book very much, and as I had not really got going on blogging by then, have checked out most of the blogs mentioned.
With one or two exceptions, I would say that the quality of political/news "analysis" is a lot more opinion than fact -- not just on the USA but certainly including it.
There are also a lot of "clever" British journalists -- well, "pseudointellectual" would be a strong but actually accurate word, although I don't like being rude. I guess you may have them in the USA too. They do "shout" pretty loud. And often do not make sense, as you say.