Occasionally we touch on the difference between the US and British political blogospheres. In particular, we have noted that the blogging phenomenon in the US is much more vibrant and well-developed, to the extent that, across the pond, blogs have become a political force in their own right.

One reason for the difference may be that the media is far less monolithic in the US – there is, for instance, no “national” newspaper in the US, so there is a great deal more diversity, leaving spaces in which the bloggers can operate.

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They are an strange Alice in Wonderland outfit. Two nights ago they broadcast a play on prime time TV which celebrated the life and times of a sworn enemy. They portrayed a former Director General, who is still revered by the Metro Elite Bien Pensants as a champion of "Liberal" values, as a thouroughly unpleasant, foul mouthed creep. Like many self loathing "liberals", the Beeblings took a masochistic pleasure in being kicked and led by the nose by a provincial housewife.
Love her or loathe her, Mary Whitehouse, remains to this day the most effective campaigner and champion of "People Power"
this country produced in living memory. She still puts the Eurosceptic movement to shame.

To be perfectly frank, I lost all respect for the BBC when it failed to ensure it got the right to show England internationals. But then, seeing as how poor its coverage of the England v USA game was, maybe that's no bad thing. Still, it means we'll have to pay extra to watch England friendlies on Setanta.

Privatisation time, methinks.

Unfortunately privatisation of the BBC is entirely unlikely, both under Brown and Dave and his chums - the latter being far too scared of what the BBC would do if they even tentatively proposed such a measure (which they won't). Besides, privatisation of the BBC would not actually remove the problem - only complete abolition would achieve that aim.

The Corporate Blogs are for the most part quite poor, and in fact are often not really blogs at all. They do not provide the same piercing coverage that the likes of EUReferendum etc. give. In their content they often discuss other media blogs which simply has the effect of extending the insular Westminster bubble onto the net. What's more, people with little knowledge of the net tend to find their way to these sites/clogs first and then often do not move on to the independent British blogosphere as a result.

I was thinking about this yesterday after your report on the power cuts.In the comments section you directed us to a EU commission site on the "Monitering of State Aid"

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/co ... id_en.html

There was this following example the EU gave as a testament to their efficiency.



Could not the EU Commission apply this to the BBC under similar logic?

Except that the EU seems intent on throwing money at the BBC ... to help it promote its er... commercial activities.

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/01/it-has-emerged.html

Maybe TV2 were not promoting the EU cause quite as vociferously as the Beeb.

Preaching to the converted I guess. I've never knowingly read a clog, dunno about colleagues here.