I tell myself that an interest in conflict is a mark of a good journalist not just perversity. Still, I think it is human nature to have a macabre fascination in a good fight. Thus I won’t fabricate excuses before telling you about my curiosity in discovering a gulf between the opinions of Richard Burton (who spoke to us yesterday) and Mr Dale (who lectured a couple of weeks ago).
Burton, former editor of Telegraph.co.uk, was quick to pooh-pooh the thought that the blog is marvellous in offering a mouthpiece to the masses. “The idea of everyone having a voice….hmmm,” he said.
He remembered conversing with some young journalists who told him they couldn’t wait to share their ideas with the world. His response: “no one is interested in your view.”
Burton said, “People are more interested in what Chantelle off Big Brother has to say than me”.
So I wonder is Dale, who extols the virtues of everyone having a voice, overlooking an important factor, i.e. that not everyone has something of interest to say?
There are, of course, plenty of people who do have fascinating ideas and the blogosphere offers them the opportunity to share them.
However, is this missing the point? The question is whether what someone says can be interesting unless they have a standpoint from which to say it? That is, can Joe Blogger ever have anything interesting to say about medicine, politics or fashion compared to a medic, politician or fashionista?
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