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The (Im)maturity of Irish Political Blogging
Read more about: Bertiegate, Blogging, Democracy
The storm clouds gathering around the Taoiseach threaten to blow away not only the government but also his party’s election campaign. For those who see politiics as a contact spectator sport, it is a fascinating story, not merely for the substance of the accumulating revalations, but also for the manner in which the story has developed.
For, in its manner and process, it has been a classic ‘old’ media story - revelations last October in a daily newspaper, further revelations last week in a Sunday newspaper, more during the week in the dailies, conversations between politiicians and print jounalist at the end of the week, more revelations in this morning’s Sunday newspapers, all breathlessly trailed and endlessly analysed by the broadcast media, and surely with the promise of more to come via the same sources.
Missing from this story is any involvement by ‘new’ media, and in particular by political bloggers. We have here on this site largely been following the news - neither making it nor breaking it but simply reporting it and commenting on it. If a similar story had been brewing in Washington, the Drudge Report would have published all of the gory details very early in this week’s news cylce if not last October. Most of the revelations in the loans for peerages affair have been trailed on Guido Fawkes. Even Slugger O’Toole has the occasional Northern Ireland scoop. But there is no equivalent political blog in Dublin to source and break these stories first.
Of course, there are many reasons for this. The relative youth of the medium is one, though it can’t be a major one, as the existence of Drudge, Guido and Slugger demonstrate. The restrictive nature of the libel laws (still unreformed becuase the election was called) must be another - certainly, the First Amendment to the US Constitution has provided a blanket of protection to Drudge. But the UK’s laws provide less of a security blanket, and Guido and Slugger operate anyway. And Irish laws are sufficiently similar to the UK’s for this not to be the explanation, or at least not the full explanation. No, I think that there is something more here, a socio-political culture which does not yet see freedom of expression in general, and freedom of political communication in particular, as a public goods in themselves. To be sure, we are moving in that direction, both in the courts and in society more generally. But we are not there yet.
I don’t know which will come first - the culture, or the the Irish political blog in the Drudge/Guido/Slugger sense. But come they will; and they will exist in a happy symbiosis. And the next - or, more likely, second next - major Irish political drama will turn on revelations broken first online. Only then can we say that Irish political blogging will have come of age.
As much as lack of access to info. in my opinion. Where are bloggers to get their info. The reason that Guido and co get the stories is they are leaked to them by parties. Parties are not interested enough in blogging to leak anything to bloggers. Preferring their own favourite journo’s. Nothing stopping you publishing stuff if you have info.
Actually, I think within a very short time you could start an Irish equivalent of Guido and get as much leverage into the political scene but at the Blogging the Election conference, Guido told us how he has built a wall around him in case of libel. His “business” is based in some island nation in the Caribbean and if you want to sue him there, it is a little more difficult than in the UK or Ireland. There are lots and lots of offline conversations where many people learn of some serious dirt on politicians but of course, were we to blog it, we risk being ruined.
If some kind of fortress around a blog were to be created, then maybe this stuff can be filtered out. Your own talk at BarCamp (which I sadly missed) seemed to frighten bloggers and gave them a few cold chills. At least big media has insurance and legal teams.
Are we talking an online version of the Phoenix? They’re no strangers to getting their asses sued if I recall.
Even if you look at the mainstream press, they hardly ever go into the political dirt compared to their UK counterparts. There seems to be an unwritten rule not to report on the drinking binges of politicians (unless they get caught driving up the wrong way on a motorway), the ones that full around with prostitutes and rentboys or the ones that do all sorts of dodgy money deals. Whether it is because of overly conservative editors and legal teams or just some perverse respect for these people, I do not know.
If you can show bloggers how to avoid getting shut down by printing the allegations, then I’m sure you’ll see Guido lite happen on this side of the Irish Sea.
The reason that Guido and co get the stories is they are leaked to them by parties
Moreover, Guido and co (especially his North American equivalents on the Drudge Report) also receive leaks from journalists, on the grounds that the journalists can’t publish libelous stories or stories about whom they do not have two sources, but they can write about Drudge reporting them. In a sense, the new media’s scoop artists are very often little more than harlequins for the old media.
Let’s not denigrate sticking to what we’re best at: fun hobbyist narking!
Although we often cannot get a “scoop” on the mainstream media when it comes to political “dirt”, or to protect ourselves from possible libelous actions, bloggers can add value to the issues of the day by our critical thought and analysis of the events and their impact.
I think we are seeing the change in the Irish Blogosphere - we’ve got blogs from Harry McGee, Kevin Rafter, Fergus Cassidy and Adam Maguire amongst a whole host of journalists who’re seeing the benefits of a new medium. We have even gotten local news blogs such as the Limerick Blogger who push the real local issues in politics.
Ireland was and always will be different from America and how it deals with political bloggers. The simplest reason being that in America and potential in Brussels we have an established lobbyist class who firmly existing within the system. These lobbyists and certain journalists are the ones who have pushed or leaked stories to craft the headlines and direct the stories. We simply have not gotten that class of lobbyist in the Irish system. This only leaves the journalists, who in fairness are beginning to ‘get’ the idea of a conversation and the idea they can add and speak around what they have published in the dead tree press and which won’t be edited out by higher levels in their newsroom.
I still think that the next direction for political bloggers in Ireland at the moment will be on single issue, focused campaigns such as the campaigns for “Support independent living for disabled adults” or “No Polling on Thursdays“. The collaboration effectiveness thru using the Internet and the fact that Internet fora such as this or P.ie now receive actual media attention and browsing, means that these issues that once may have languished as a single press release on somebodies over crowded desk may actually get enough momentum to hit the limelight.
The one thorny issue that we have yet to seriously discuss within the regard of this new domain is that of story accreditation. If we are to become primary sources, when we do, such stories need to be accredited to the site or author to ensure that its fora such as here get the credit and continue to grow rather than being sidelined in favour of a particular media group.