Ian Tomlinson and Blogging about Blogging

Reactions on the blogosphere (my oh my, I hate that word) have been inevitably mixed. A lot of people see his treatment at the hands of the police as absolutely shocking, whilst some point that he may have been provoking the police. I'd be in the former camp, but debate is always good and seeing an alternative perspective is part of the point of seeking the opinions of others. 

But one of the more worrying responses to this police attack (and, provoked or otherwise, it was an attack) is the desire of some blogs to criticise others for not shouting about this more promptly or in the *right* way - particularly those on what is referred to as the right of the blogosphere (seriously, who came up with that word? Someone who really, really hates bloggers and wants them to have the worst name ever in the history of the English language?)

Mr Eugenides points out that blogs are not a 24/7 news service, and the content of the blog is very much down to the individual author. Absolutely - the fact that Tim Ireland wants Iain Dale to comment more properly on the Tomlinson case doesn't mean that Iain Dale has to. Besides. with something like the attack on Tomlinson, there is no need for blogs to publicise it. The visuals are so arresting (no pun intended) and so immediately controversial that this story heads up to the top of the news bulletins anyway, and will be endlessly debated whether the blogs pick up on it or not. 

We often seem to forget that whether you have a small blog that attracts a few thousands vews a month (like this one) or one that gets hundreds of thousands a month (like Dale or Fawkes), you are still only tapping into a fraction of this country's circa 60,000,000 people. The majority of this population probably don't know what a blog is and don't care; of those that do, a hefty proportion will probably question who these bloggers are, and why they don't get out more.

Yet people will stray onto blogs, particularly over controversial issues like the police attacking a man on the way home from work. And they may see some big debates over who said what and when. And they would be well within their rights just to not fucking care.

Seriously, read this post back to yourself. What is one of the most boring sentences in this post? What is one of the most boring sentences ever written? Which sentence actually bored the author whilst he was writing it? This one: Absolutely - the fact that Tim Ireland wants Iain Dale to comment more promptly on the Tomlinson case doesn't mean that Iain Dale has to. Even if you know who Ireland and Dale are, that sentence is still pretty fucking boring. If you don't know who the two bloggers in question are, then you'll probably be heading back to The Daily Mail's website for a blow by blow breakdown of the case (pun not intended). 

You can passionately care, and rant until you are blue in the face, about the sanctity of blogging and the importance of standards; the reality is that people just don't care. Blogs work best when they are uncovering scandals, expressing controversial opinions and debating the issues of the day. When it comes down to bellyaching about the timings of posts, they are about as interesting as a Latin lesson on a summer's day.

Blogging about blogging is dull, ladies and gents. And with that in mind, I'm going to stop doing it now.