John Hartigan vs. Bloggers *ding,ding*

I was wondering what Bernard Keane was going on about on Twitter about a fellow called John Hartigan – my ignorance was epic. I finally found out what all the fuss was about, the duel with Hartigan vs. Crikey and response from Mumbrella being something of an internet sensation.

Crikey's response

Hartigan attacked sites such as Crikey which, he claimed, have little original content and offer only commentary on mainstream media publications, before going on to spruik News Ltd’s new comment website, The Punch. – Crikey.

Tweets were in hundreds..

I was most demoralised when I read that News Ltd. political journos will shift premises from the Canberra Press Gallery to “somewhere closer to the readers”, and his renewed comments that people are not interested in politics and negative coverage. Further, he wanted a greater turnover in political journalists.

This is outrageous – some of the journalists or ‘the pack’ whom I respect the most have sat in those galleries; Lyndal Curtis, Dennis Atkins, Annabel Crabb, George Megalogenis – the idea that the tradition of the long standing agreement with parliament over the rent free premises in parliament house will be no more than a  vestige of Australian journalism history is sad.

Journos sat in parliament during the dismissal, children overboard, Holt’s disappearance – I don’t understand the move for Hartigan to direct journalists based on the plebiscite election by the readership for common denominator reporting on “local issues” like “traffic” and fluffy puff pieces.

Readers want less negative stuff – John Hartigan

Journos I know live and breathe the news, it’s all they talk about, tweet about, given two bottles of red they’re not lamenting over past loves – they’re talking about new stories, recalling the hansard and turning off google alert SMSs on their phone.

These people shouldn’t be cycled through – I want, legacies, accountability, stories from people I know about - I want large hulking biographies of what they’ve seen behind parliament doors.

I buy the Courier Mail, The Australian and the Financial review daily. I read poltical blogs like Public Polity, Pollytics, Poll Bludger, Larvatus Prodeo, Mumbrella, OnLine Opinion, Woolly Days, Pineapple Politics Blog and Tally Room most of these are from very senior journalists or people in party machines. There is a great difference between my blog and a blog like Pineapple Politics blog or Tally room. Tally room broke 2 stories during the Queensland Election – one being the turncoat pamphlets as he was on the voting booth at the time. Pineapple Politics Blog is written by the  senior politics journo at the Courier Mail.

Hartigan is right about blogs like mine – it isn’t a news source – it is just commentry and for my own and others amusement. Am I an extremist ? I extremely enjoy my own speech bubbles – I really do. I am not objective at all – I am grossly self-indulgent and I don’t think people are misguided in that sense.

However the blogs above are in depth, informative, and often break news. They can’t hamper the news they invigorate it and they can be viewed for free to accompany traditional news mediums.

I don’t want journalism to change to suit the readership – I want the readership to become more educated and more connected. You can tell I’m a Utopian lefty idealist scum bag can’t you?

I’m out.

Nadia x