Monday 31 August 2009

Which blogs have Gone Carter? [update 3]

Soon after the last election I asked if regime change will mean blog change? -- suggesting that the pro-National blogs would find it hard to maintain their enthusiasm for blogging under a National Government, and if they did they’d simply turn into a blue Jordan Carter. (Uugh! What could be more shameful?)

Along those lines, two Tory bloggists have questioned their blogging raison d'ĂȘtre this week including Barnsley Bill, who’s questioning his blogging mojo but seems to be staying put, and Keeping Stock who cites other interests and is saying Goodbye. And not so long ago we saw Roar Prawn go, then come back again, then . . . (just what the hell is she doing now?)

Blogging is by and large an oppositional medium. Perhaps that’s why Labour’s Red Alert has made a splash without seeing anything comparable from the government – and just how dull would it have been if there had been? Because, let’s face it, it’s far more interesting downloading posts that rip the arse out of the ruling panjandrums than it is reading soothing encomia to their brilliance. And that’s why the pro-National blogs are so boring. I predicted as much back in November, suggesting that

the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy -- which is to say Whale Oil, Kiwiblog, No Minister and the odious Matthew Hooton -- well, they'll just quietly transform the Conspiratorium of Right Wing Opposition into a Softcock Centre-Right Blancmange sending out trial balloons for their masters between frequent encomia to blandness and big government.

Was I wrong? Well, Matthew Hooton’s got a new job inside the tent; Whale Oil has taken to attacking people no-one cares about; and David Farrar keeps sending out those trial balloons in between recycling the news, republishing some good stats, and explaining why this is the best government since Gladstone’s.

And there’s only so many times you can read Adolf filling up the columns at No Minister with news about how wonderful that nice Mr Key is for not listening to his employers before feeling the bile rise in the throat -- and his regular attacks on Labour’s front bench are quite simply irrelevant. Who cares? Attacking Labour made for readable posts when Labour was in power, but it’s a dumb-trick one-trick pony now they’ve been turfed out.

So No Minister under Adolf’s dictatorship is the prime example of Going Carter.

What about the left side of the aisle? As expected, The Double Standard has moved from the Ninth Floor of the Beehive down to EPMU headquarters, but has become more interesting for it, if no less hyperbolic; Tumeke has gone from hating John Key and George Bush to really, really hating John Key and wanting to fellate Obama; The Hive has disappeared into the lobbies; and the men and women of Public Address are slowly realising John Boy is one of them, especially now he’s telling Family First it’s still not okay.

And the Dim Post has got funnier.

So I don’t think I”ve done too badly with my predictions -- though I confess I said nothing about Dim Post or the ermgence of the MacDoctor -- and nor has Cactus Kate with hers, particularly with her prediction: “new left wing blogs to emerge now they all face long-term unemployment.” That might explain the bitter tone of the newly unemployed at the likes of Kiwipolitico.

And if you’re wondering if this is all a precursor to folding up my own tent, I’m afraid not. NOT PC is going nowhere (as the latest blog rankings confirm). My own reasons for blogging haven’t changed since I began.

And there’s always some breaking news to talk about:

UPDATE 1: Trying to find a new mojo, Whale Oil is now blogetically co-habiting with Cactus at a new blog location called Gotcha! – the name an homage, I presume, to The Sun’s famous/infamous headline.

UPDATE 2: Pablo from Kiwipolitico reckons they’re neither bitter nor un(der)employed. The latter we’ll have to take on trust, and on the former claim you can simply head over there and decide for yourself about the bitterness or otherwise of this increasingly influential left-wing blog.

UPDATE 3: Speaking of mojo, DomPost's political editor reckons Farrar has lost his, The Standard writers haven't quite acquired one, and Whale Oil is, "once I got over my squeamishness . . . utterly nihilistic and entertaining." Oh, and NOT PC doesn't exist -- except when it comes to pinching lines. (Yes Virginia, we bloggers can spot a pinched line when we see one.)

Read Tracy Watkins's must-read political blogs.

27 comments:

B.S. said...

The Tumeke rankings are a banal cock measuring wankfest. 95% of the blogs on their pissing register are nothing more than link farms to the ironically despised main stream media that do the heavey lifting that the mosquitos of the blogosphere feast on. Cactus is the only one who does any original work in preparing her diatribes.

bustedblonde said...

we are working deep in the bowels of the govt.. really deep in health - with a few bits and pieces on the side and gardening..... and we are continually testing the boundaries of free speech from within.

Peter Cresswell said...

The only one?

Why thanks, Link Whore.

B.S. said...

@PC - I would suggest that the bait was taken and swallowed :-)

KG said...

Very relieved you have no plans to up stumps and disappear PC. The Kiwi blogosphere would lose a lot of colour and interest if you left.
Besides, who else posts on architecture, eh?

Peter Cresswell said...

Well, there's Diffusive Architecture.

And Tony Watkins.

B.S. said...

I'm pissed off that Jardis was only a guest blogger at Farrar's Troll Farm and has gone silent now the annointed one is back from Hawaii. That was one hot chick blogger. I wonder who she really is ?

Jardis-Other-1/2 said...

Brian, you're talking about my girlfriend. I agree, she's good but I think she's not ready to start her own blog yet (no time). Being a guest-blogger is something appeal to her, since she doesn't have to commit to it.

B.S. said...

@Jardis-Other-1/2 : that is Bryan spelt B-R-Y-A-N .

I certainly hope she gets the time to do a few more guest posts.

FAIRFACTS MEDIA said...

Please keep up the good work, PC.
Some well argued points you make.
Oh! and do drop over at my place when you can.
I have found a source of some interesting and amusing videos from Britain.
I think we can credit the libertarian blogs for them.
Pity only Whale Oil seems to have the skills to make anything like them here.

B.S. said...

@Fairfacts - you could always make your own videos. It's not overly difficuilt.

Act Youth said...

Fairfacts and Bryan,

You guys made No-Minister interesting (even if was fairly brief for Bryan's involvement there). The authors there seems quite boring and lack originality. All, except lefty Milt & Act-supporter Gooner, would love to have babies with John Key.

Pablo said...

PC:
I am not so sure about the accuracy of your comment about the "bitter" tone of our posts at Kiwipolitico. Also, I am the only one un(der)employed in our collective, and surely you of all people would recognise the utterly venal politically correct motivations behind the dispute with my erstwhile employer.

Peter Cresswell said...

PABLO: "I am not so sure about the accuracy of your comment about the "bitter" tone of our posts at Kiwipolitico."

Alright, fair enough -- we can let the readers decide on that one.

And I'm sorry, I didn't know anything about your employment dispute. Do tell?

Pablo said...

Cheers Peter, for the link. I appreciate your directing readers over to make up their own minds.

As for the employment dispute, it is a matter of (very) public record.

B.S. said...

@actyout - I am at www.linkwhore.co.nz

Oswald Bastable said...

"...Blogging is by and large an oppositional medium..."

Looks like I'm in for the long haul then!

Barnsley Bill said...

My loss of Mojo is more to do with my crippling embarassment at the way some on the right are behaving. In one corner we have the mindless borg mentality where witless defense of the indefensible is the default setting and at the other end we have the spit flecked racist/ fascists who want to barbecue every woman/wog/lefty and homo. A lack of humanity or ability to form individual opinion seems to be the curse of the right wing blogosphere.
The other reason for my waning enthusiasm is that I have something else in my life at the moment that is hopefully going to prove much more personally satisfying than screaming at my laptop.

Madeleine said...

I see we are not important enough to merit a mention.

*sulking*

lprent said...

*sigh*
Not PC - another idiot preferring to believe stupidity (Whale) rather than looking at the site. Look at how many people post at The Standard and how wide a range they post on? Use some common sense (if you have any).

The EPMU wouldn't have the budget for that many bloggers. There is also no way that Helen would have allowed her 9th floor staff waste time on it.

It costs $90 per month and a lot of peoples free time. At present we can't easily bring new posters onto the site because there is a traffic jam for posts. They scroll off the page too quickly. Thats something we're looking at fixing, so we can bring more opinions onto the site.

Peter Cresswell said...

* Sigh *

I call you interesting, and you call me an idiot.

There really is no justice in the world, is there. ;^)

Just my opinion said...

Bloody glad you aint going anywhere. We need a kick up the ass from you Libz and we all know the Nats are stuffing it all up for us all.

I'm going nowhere either. Occasionally we even get readers and put together some good posts :)

Anonymous said...

Wonder why you are seldom - if ever - mentioned in the MSM when it comes to political blogs. People are obviously reading the blog - I guess it must be a guilty pleasure. Or something.

Peter Cresswell said...

It's a bit like Libertarianz, really -- we can frequently see lines we've written being rewritten around the place (including in Tracy Watkins's piece itself), but very few will admit their source.

Weird, isn't it.

Julian said...

Yes Ruth, it is perplexing but then the ideas presented in this blog challenge the MSM, unlike all other blogs. Speaking of other political blogs, I do note that rarely do they link to NotPC. Obviously they can link to who they wish, but there attitude has changed - they used to link more often.

Julian

Falafulu Fisi said...

Ruth said...
you are seldom - if ever - mentioned in the MSM when it comes to political blogs.

One reason that I can think of, is that all or most of the MSM journalists are simply dull. I bet that when they visit Not PC, their brain simply cannot absorb the depth, intelligence and reason that PC covers here on his blog.

I learnt that there is something called non-objective law, where none of the NZ bloggers covered or even touch on that subject regarding the Sue Bradford's bill, because that specific law is fact non-objective in which law-professor Evans, wrote about in his Herald article?

My question is to MSM journalists, that if Falafulu can learn some new concepts (one of hundreds) such as non-objective law from Not PC blog , then why the fuck can't you grasp these too? C'mon, it is not complex physics equation that PC writes about to be almost impossible for you to understand/read, but the articles here are written in just purely English words (your first language and it is my 2nd) .

Journalists are simply too fucking lazy or otherwise, they're simply lack something in the head or some enthusiasm to educate themselves in order to be sharp in their critical analysis of the news at hand. David Farrar is quoted more often in the MSM, for what again? For knowledge and depth or simply because of popularity of his site?

This is one reason I enjoyed watching Glen Beck's show, because he frequently brings in experts into his show for a comment or interview about an issue and these experts are top notch. When I saw, Dr. Brook from the Cato institute being interviewed by Beck, I thought, dang, I've seen that guy before on a post at Not PC (not from farrar, standard, no-minister, public-address, etc,...).

If PC wants to be a top blogger internationally, he could simply write for some overseas news site, because to be an international writer, you need to be a walking Google where all/most of the world's information is reposited in there where PC is one. Other NZ bloggers don't have that capability because they're not walking Google, but they're equivalent to a local repository like the Auckland library.

All this potential of being an international blogger, I know that PC wants to remain local and concentrate on issues here at home.

NBR should hire PC to write once a week for them. PC can offer extra depth of where their journalists' abilities end, more like a night-vision goggle, ie, a person that does possess one can see and explain things better than one that doesn't.

Anonymous said...

Yes all those reasons are valid FF and Julian.

But I feel the real reason is that PC and Libz are simply out of the tent - outside the beltway. To get inside the tent you have to suck up to certain people ( and certain bloggers) and tell them how great they are. Or else you can get blackballed. It's the same in the corporate world here in NZ.

But to his credit PC has attracted a large readership without any of the usual sycophancy.