Howard Jacobson Should Read More Blogs Before Attacking Them All
Mark Thompson takes Howard Jacobson to task over his recent comments on bloggers.
2 Sep 2011, 18:15
Howard Jacobson: Right or Wrong?
“When I wander off from the newspaper and into the world of blogs I’m a bit chilled.
What you read is extreme ignorance and pure poison. It is a poisonous, poisonous medium. You can’t believe how malicious, how ignorant, how stupid… and you do wonder if they don’t have anything better to do than attack people who have written articles. And you do wonder whatever happened to the idea of the critic; of the reviewer… people who have given their lives to honing the art of what they do.”
This is a ridiculous tirade. To assume all bloggers are one homogenous mass is a fundamental error. To follow this through imagine if I was to apply to same reasoning to his own profession of newspaper columnists.
I often have problems with the writings of Melanie Phillips, Peter Hitchens, Richard Littlejohn, Liz Jones, Jan Moir and others. Perhaps not every single column they have written, sometimes each of them will have interesting points to make but I am very sure I could quickly pick out several from each of them that I could characterise as poisonous, ignorant, malicious and stupid. And then I could use this as a stick with which to beat all columnists with and dismiss them all.
But that would be to dismiss the writings of people like Matthew Parris, Matthew D'Ancona, Danny Finkelstein, Steve Richards, Mary Ann Sieghart, Julian Glover and countless others whom I respect and admire and who usually produce thought provoking columns of a very high standard. So of course I would never do something as crass as this.
For Mr Jacobson to make a statement like this suggests that he has not read many blogs at all which for an intellectual such as him who doubtless considers himself very widely read is odd. I mentioned this on Twitter and sometime contributor to Dale & Co Louis Barfe sagely suggested that it is probably because he has only ever read blogs that people have pointed him towards that are being negative about his writing. Hence he would be getting a very distorted view of what is out there.
If Mr Jacobson gets pointed towards this article, in an attempt to balance his experiences, can I suggest that he tries the following blogs:
People's Republic of Mortimer (wonderful writing on politics and lots of other subjects from Lib Dem Alix Mortimer)
Scarlet Standard (relatively new blog from a long term committed Labour activist who is thought provoking and highly politically aware)
Ellee Seymour (Ellee has been active in Conservative politics and works in PR - she usually has an interesting take on stories of the day)
I would argue that all three of these bloggers on their best days are up there with the best of the columnists I cited above and there are countless others out there too political and non-political. The idea that it is only people who are being paid to write their opinions and analysis that are worth reading is I am sorry to say ill-informed elitist nonsense.
And I am sorry if that is construed as a poisonous comment!
Comments (7)
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Howard Jacobson is a blowhard.
And Finkler's Question was really not very funny.
Sad, but true.
02/09/2011 18:38Spot on Mark!
02/09/2011 18:42Great post, but I think there is an even more important point to be made in defence of bloggers and blogs: that it is a good thing that the profession of critics is being expanded by the blogosphere. Rather than the editors of newspapers and journals choosing who's views can be read by the masses, the quality of the blogger's blog does that for them. Jacobson seems to be a tad out of touch and more than a tad elitist here. I suppose its harder for him to cosy up to bloggers who review his books than his established and elite broadsheet reviewers!
02/09/2011 21:46Thanks Will.
You make a good point. Also, someone else pointed out to me that if Jacobson was starting out right now instead of 50 years ago he would almost certainly be embracing the new media. It's simply that he has not been exposed to it and does not really understand its potential and attraction.
03/09/2011 10:41Oh and thanks Jerry too! That's high praise coming from the D&C blogging powerhouse :)
03/09/2011 10:42Thanks Mark, I am very flattered to be recommended this way. Each to his own, I say, he obviously doesn't get it, or prefers not to.
04/09/2011 21:49Howard certainly has a wonderful sneer ;)
No problem Ellee! Well deserved recommendation :)
Yes, he definitely doesn't get it but when a Booker Prize winner with a large platform makes ill-informed comments like this they need to be rebutted. The sad thing is some people will read his comments and think he is right and that the blogosphere is full of "poisonous" blogs which is a travesty of the truth.
05/09/2011 08:59