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Last updated on July 2nd, 2017 at 08:10 am
ABC-approved Queensland academics Jason Wilson, Axel Bruns and Barry Saunders examine blogospheric power:
As we’ve pointed out before, Australia’s bloggers are overwhelmingly left-of-centre …
And all of them are such class acts. (By the way, hit that “before” link for the evidence of leftist domination this bunch previously “pointed out”.)
JASON!
Jason, Axel and Barry – the Boyzone of blogging – continue:
We might have our equivalents to the left-leaning Daily Kos …
Name one. Name just one with readership and political influence comparable to Daily Kos. In fact, name just one with any substantial readership and influence.
… but it’s hard to pick out our own equivalent to Little Green Footballs or Town Hall, where Australian conservatives can form communities of opinion and respond back (except maybe at Tim Blair’s blog) …
There’s also that Andrew Bolt chap. He seems quite the community-former.
AXEL!
Away from the ABC (rapidly defiling Australia’s pristine online environment) and over at J.A.B.’s primary site, Jason has a theory:
(The) reason that the left-of-centre blogosphere has prospered in Australia is that the opinion pages only seem to be open to forthright conservatives …
Lots of unpopular blogs is not a sign of prosperity. As for opinion pages only being open to “forthright conservatives” … Catherine Deveny, Richard Ackland, Traceeee Hutchison, Mike Carlton, Kathy McCabe, Phillip Adams, Sue Dunleavy, Richard Glover, Jill Singer, Alan Ramsey, Kenneth Davidson, Anne Summers, Peter Hartcher, Annabel Crabb, Michael Leunig, Michelle Grattan, Tim Colebatch, Martin Flanagan and Adele Horin (among other op-ed non-cons) may disagree.
BARRY!
Here’s another triple-academic theory:
With the Rudd Government in place, and the hard-right columnists looking increasingly isolated (Tom Switzer’s resignation as the editor of the Oz’s opinion pages last week is a clear sign here) …
These clowns have no idea. They’re just making things up. And, of course, they’re doing it on your dime, with a juicy grant to investigate “innovative applications of digital media for participatory journalism and citizen engagement in Australian public communication”.
“Participatory”, eh? “Citizen engagement”, would you? Take a look at their site (warning: because it’s a left-wing site, you may experience delays due to overwhelming prosperity). Then, as an interactive experiment in “Australian public communication”, try to find email addresses for Jason, Axel and Barry.
UPDATE. “Produsage”. It’s a word Dr Axel invented all by himself. It’s also a book:
Axel Bruns has been so kind as to send me the manuscript of his new book on Produsage, and I must admit that while reading it I could hardly contain my …
• prodesire to kill myself?
• prodictionary of words that will never catch on?
• Michael Leunig ProDuck™?
UPDATE II. Plagiarism! This site breaks the news of Kevin Rudd’s earmining to a shocked and frightened world, October 19:
NO, KEVIN! NOOOOOO!
Jason, Axel and Barry on waxmuncher Rudd, one month later:
No, Kevin, noooooo…..
No link, no credit. Sigh …
UPDATE III. “I had a look at their site,” emails Roy Vernon. “Nineteen posts between the three of them in six months, or once a month each. Not really blogging, is it? I write to my mum more often than that.”
UPDATE IV. Barry launches a withering riposte.
WOW, so that’s all I have to do to get a grant?? Just make it up as I go along?? Where’s my money….
Posted by Old Tanker on 2008 02 18 at 01:56 PM • permalink
Bloody hell. I wasn’t aware you could be a “Professor of Speculation”.
Is that a post grad qual. after you have acquired the B.O.B.S. (Bachelor of Bull Shit ).
Fancy getting paid for providing stuff of that quality.
Bloody hell with quals like some of theirs perhaps I can get get some letters behind my name for studies in Reschs draught, Keno and meat raffles.
Aren’t they a bit young to be so full of themselves?
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2008 02 18 at 02:26 PM • permalink
“Queensland academics”, eh? Maybe that explains it.
I thought this was how it went.
B.S. = Bullshit
M.S. = More of the Same
PhD = Piled Higher and DeeperPosted by Old Tanker on 2008 02 18 at 02:53 PM • permalink
You can get money from the government for blogging in Australia? What the hell am I doing in the US, then? Then again, I can’t say as lately I’ve been doing all that much blogging… sigh. I can’t help it. My windmill-challenging arm has gotten tired.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2008 02 18 at 03:09 PM • permalink
The term “Little Twerps” comes to mind.
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2008 02 18 at 04:42 PM • permalink
- We definitely have a Labor Government. Be prepared for more of these types of taxpayer funded ‘pseudo intellectual investigations.’ Maybe Leunig will qualify for a grant, so he can find out if we should say $orry to Lizards.
Perhaps these ‘professors’ could also find out why most lefty bloggers confuse keyboard composition with mobile phone texting in their grammar and why so many of them are not familiar with the spell check feature on a computer.
went to Gatewatching, clicked on the comments and was urged to be the first to do so. The boy band must be still building its fan base.
What The New Academics on the Block haven’t worked out is that while Australian right-wing blogs may be few in number, the interest they generate is immense and in Tim’s case, global. There are dozens of left-wing blogs, their proprietors sitting quietly by their computers waiting and waiting for someone, anyone, to come in through the door. All a bit sad – like a Leunig cartoon actually.
Ironically Piers Akerman would get more Left wing bloggers than those types of sites you have alluded to. I seem to recall he also had 8 of the top 10 most commented on blogs in the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) all year in 2007 and his figures are easily the highest there to date.
That bloody loopy wringing wet left winger, aka Piers is taking over – just as they say !
Economists have had a lot to chew over following international market turmoil, so bloggers like John Quiggin have been able to take readers through the ins and outs of financial meltdown.
Sadly, problems in the Middle East never seem to go away, so Antony Lowenstein has had a lot to get on with too.
enough said- cretans the lot of them
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2008 02 18 at 05:56 PM • permalink
My mother was born in the Netherlands. She told me this unbelievable story that they had a “right to be an artist” If you passed a jury of govt officials, they would then buy every painting you produced for the remainder of your days. Apparently there exists a huge warehouse full of this “art”. I guess you guys have a “right to be a lefty wanker”
What planet are these guys on? Today’s op-ed page in the Melbourne Age is as follows:
1. Piece about surgery versus education in fighting the obesity ‘epidemic’. (Belief in manufactured lifestyle epidemics tends to be of the left, but let’s call this one neutral.)
2. Main piece by staff writer Liz Minchin about the Garnaut report, and the urgent need to start living in caves to ‘fight global warming’.
3. Strangely ambiguous cartoon by Spooner illustrating the above.
4. Piece by Tim Flannery: ‘Youth can be the vanguard for action on climate change’.
5. Chatterer ‘think piece’ by bubble-head Larissa Dubecki on why c**t shouldn’t a dirty word.
#19: Piece by Tim Flannery: ‘Youth can be the vanguard for action on climate change’.
Why, yes, I suppose that’s true.
Not exactly American Gladiator material, are they??
Posted by Tex Lovera on 2008 02 18 at 07:11 PM • permalink
BTW, I clicked on Tim’s last link, making the dreary slog over to the “Gatewatching” site, and browsed for a while. It is sterile, lab-quality tedium; rather like the blog equivalent of a cold-war era edition of Pravda, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Felix Dzerzhinsky beet-farming collective.
Jason- shitbird@warmening.com.au
Axel- geekboy@datelessinoz.com.au
Barry- zombielove@coldhardslab.com.au
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2008 02 18 at 07:51 PM • permalink
Who are you trying to kid, Blair? We all know who is controlling “sitemeter”.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 02 18 at 07:54 PM • permalink
What turgid rubbish. Their site had the sound of crickets chirping and the sight of blog-tumbleweed rolling by.
What is it about leftist bloggers and the ‘we are so popular’ line? Remember Bahnisch tried to pull the same stunt, Gruen had his web awards (where only the lefties won) and the ver popular Margo had some proposed people’s/citizens tribunal that never got off the ground.
… but it’s hard to pick out our own equivalent to Little Green Footballs or Town Hall, where Australian conservatives can form communities of opinion and respond back (except maybe at Tim Blair’s blog) …
That’s because us American conservatives tend push out the competition. It’s not our fault, it’s our nature. We’re like kudzu.
Other than my experience with timblair’s love hurts and timblair’s first cut is the deepest. I do not understand why people go to these lefty blogs. My age showing again?
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 18 at 09:11 PM • permalink
Just for amusement, here’s a Lefty at Bolt’s analysis of this here blog and its commenters…
Bazza is correct about Blair’s blog. You’re unable to respond back to Blair blog. …it’s owned by News Ltd now.
Their bloggers are staged and lack any spontaneous thought at all. Must be because some are American and dumb. The bloggers are rather cat like by nature.
Meow.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 02 18 at 09:32 PM • permalink
These deluded folk can’t make the distinction between “opinion makers” and the electorate who actually choose the government. Their logic works something like this:
The crew at Lefty Provo blog believe in equal rights for cabbages. The Australian people choose a marginally centre-left government who’s ruling faction is clearly against equal rights for cabbages; therefore the Australian people are also in favour of equal rights for cabbages.
As the Buddha said, “Before Labor government, Herald Sun outsell Age three to one. After Labor government, Herald Sun outsell Age three to one.”
Kevin Rudd was elected almost solely because he gave a series of undertakings to be as much like John Howard as possible. And he won by the narrowest of margins, having apparently blown most of that 20 point lead he supposedly had for months. There’s lots of leftie hubris about for not a lot of reason.
That’s true but Brendan Nelson might give Rudd the landslide he desperately needs. I’m not saying that the dear doctor is boring, but he makes Rudd look like Liberace.
If I should dare to offer an opinion, its that Australian conservatives need to rediscover topics other than Islam, footy and immigration, and need to champion market economics and capitalism more positively so that it is appealing to the working class as much as anyone else.
Now that the Apology is over (although I can bet this will be a Blair meme for another 6 months), perhaps Aussie bloggers could get to grips with Aboriginal issues without the simpering?
Their bloggers are staged and lack any spontaneous thought at all. Must be because some are American and dumb. The bloggers are rather cat like by nature.
I ar a dum American(sp??) I am working on my awsy aksent to sownd more smarter.
If brains were bullets he couldn’t shoot himself…
Posted by Old Tanker on 2008 02 18 at 10:04 PM • permalink
#44. John A. Dare away. I agree with a chunk of that. The bit about returning to the basics of what both sides of politics are supposed to represent. The Liberals need to talk about small government, low taxes and the responsibilities of the individual. Doing that successfully would highlight the dark side of Labor which is the nanny state, high taxes, organised labor and the false issue of caring for minorities.
Big ask though with the Labor simpatico running the school and university systems and the previous Howard Government bolstering the welfare system to keep the middle classes happy.
Sounds like the plot from a teen sex comedy.
Paul Keating left school at 14 to support his mother and siblings, while Jim Hacker wasn’t afforded a cook to prepare his meals.
#41: “Their bloggers are staged…”
The soundstage at Blair Productions. The shooting has begun. Wronwright enters, stage left, and strikes a dramatic pose in front of the Tardis. Sitting in the director’s chair, clad in riding breeches, cravat and beret, is Paco.
Wronwright: I…
Paco: Cut!
Wronwright ( Folds arms, and taps foot briskly): Now what?
Paco: Wronwright, you’re supposed to be wearing a long coat and a floppy tie, like Dr. Who. What’s with the Dudley Do-Right outfit?
Wronwright: This outfit, as you’re pleased to call it, complements my naturally-heroic physique. Besides, Dr. Who always struck me as looking like a bum at the metro station asking for spare change.
Paco: Alright, we’ll use digital animation to work in the Dr. Who clothes, later. Ok . . . Action!
Wronwright: I must hurry. Tim is in need of the restorative powers of Sumerian mead, and supplies are low.
Rebecca (Enters stage right, weeping): Wronwight, no! You musn’t go alone!
Paco: Cut! Wrong, wrong, all wrong!
Rebecca: C’mon! That was letter perfect.
Paco: The line is, “You musn’t go alone”, not, “You musn’t go alone.” And first you deliver your line, then you wring your hands, cry, and do business with handkerchief. Ok, take it from line 27, where a squad of leftwing bloggers try to stop Wronwright. Alright…Send in the clowns! Action!
Wronwright: Stuntman!!
Paco: Cut! Why do you need a stuntman? These are leftwing bloggers. It’s just going to be a slap fight.
Wronwright: I know, but the last time the little buggers slapped me, clouds of makeup rose from my face; it looked like I had sneezed into a snuff box.
Paco: Alright, alright! Clowns, fake the slapping! And Yojimbo; where is the spotlight?
Yojimbo: Global warming. Hey, I’m just sayin’ . . .
Paco ( Snaps swagger-stick in half with bare hands): I cannot work like this! I quit!
Assistant Director, Old Tanker: Ok, that looks like lunch.
…perhaps Aussie bloggers could get to grips with Aboriginal issues without the simpering?
I wouldn’t pretend to speak for many here, but would I suspect you think coming to grips with Aboriginal issues means falling into line with current orthodoxy . With the opinions of those recently swayed by a PM who shows all the hallmarks of being little more than a populist spinner. A bloke who with a few hours thinking came up with a speech that despite the fact that he has never before shown the slightest interest in Aboriginal issues (that is if you believe Hansard), and invoked feel-good feelings in the masses not unlike having a right hand pocket full of Lollygobble Bliss bombs and a left one full of Barratts Sherbet fountains.
Some of us have don’t need to rely on the Discovery Channel to have seen Aboriginal people close up ,nor do we need the wisdom of some soy infused Bachelor of Arts graduate from Kensington seconded from the Childrens Creative Section of the ABC to increase our understanding and exposure to Aboriginal issues .
I comment on this blog because I find most left-wing (I won’t say liberal because they ain’t) blogs to be tedious, one-dimensional diatribes based on undigested Marxist ideas about economics, history and the role of nation states.
At least here, although I’m hardly a slavish toer of the party line, I get a hearing that doesn’t involve tedious rehashings of something called “consensus politics” or “consensus science”. And I’m not told to piss off quite as often as elsewhere. And Tim hasn’t banned me yet.
If you want to see what fun it is on left-wing blogs, watch my comments to this genius: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/14/222528/569
Oh well.
Tim, I think you do these idi…gentlemen an injustice. I suspect they think Traceeee and Phil Adams and the rest are right wing. That would explain their otherwise inexplicable comment.
I do hope they are able to keep control of their bold tag costs. It would not do for them to go the way of Web Diary, and deprive Australians of their no-doubt-genius-level insights. Perhaps Margo should consider getting a government grant to start up blogging again. If the government is giving money to twits to blog, Margo ought to be at the front of the line.
Queensland academics? Is that anything like diploma mill graduates?
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2008 02 19 at 12:00 AM • permalink
Piss off*.
*just saying it so you don’t feel like you’re missing out, okay?
#58
Tim, I think you do these idi…gentlemen an injustice. I suspect they think Traceeee and Phil Adams and the rest are right wing. That would explain their otherwise inexplicable comment.
Are these the people who think that the MSM is right leaning?
Be warned, folks, I done went and done it. My comment posted at “gatewatching”*, currently awaiting moderation, follows:
If you ask the blog administrator, Andrea Harris (click on “E-MAIL” here), or maybe ask Tim himself (trblair-at-ozemail.com.au, it’s near the top of his web site), I imagine they would sign you up, and you could chat away. .
After all, Bryan Law and Jeremy Sear post there now and then. And, once upon a time, so did Chris Sheil. Why not you?
I shall be in my bunker, sitting out the artillery barrage…….
===============
*: BTW, what a pretentious blog name. “Gatewatching”, sounds like something bored college students would do in lieu of studying. Oh, wait…..
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 02 19 at 01:08 AM • permalink
Whups! I mean, Update IV, sorry, I always typo when I’m ducking and covering.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 02 19 at 01:09 AM • permalink
I see the Boy Bloggers won’t accept Tim’s membership. These kids obviously don’t realise what they are playing with – the taxpayers’ money.
Equal access to government provided services is a right of all Australians. Huey, Dewey and Louie have decided, for reasons that may have something to do with race or religion, that Tim is barred?
I think I feel an apology coming on, even a public holiday.
It seems the blogosphere has similar features to the writings in feminist texts – the Marxist/Lefties are often so very very very boring.
The radical feminists (Dworkin and the like) and right-wingers are at least far more direct in their writing, engage the reader immediately and are comprehensible.
They have something to say and they say it – whether you agree with it or not, at least you can understand them.The Marxists types need a lot more effort to be understood, and it seldom pays off.
Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 19 at 01:59 AM • permalink
- Crikey John A @ # 44 & 57.
Just went over to see your link in #57 – it was blocked at work – something about not allowing sites for cults/belief systems (unlike here lol).Either you know what you are talking about or (just as valuably in any blogger ) you make it look like you do (- the method I generally have to attempt).Excellent work .
Note to self : Beware of subject blogger . Steer clear unless very sure of subject matter.
“I had a look at their site,” emails Roy Vernon. “Nineteen posts between the three of them in six months, or once a month each. Not really blogging, is it? I write to my mum more often than that.”
Not unlike the pathetic R. J. Stove, who calls himself “contributing editor” to The American Conservative, with one contribution in Juny 2006, followed by one in June, 2007.
- #44 – John A – If you are to be read and not lambasted/banned, you might ease off a bit on this sort of crap:
“If I should dare to offer an opinion, its that Australian conservatives need to rediscover topics other than Islam, footy and immigration …”
It looks more like a provocation than an honest attempt to be part of a conversation.
But there is room at the table for any articulate soul who can see things from more than one viewpoint.
Are these the people who think that the MSM is right leaning?
Eric Alterman isn’t alone? Imagine my surprise…
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 02 19 at 04:58 PM • permalink
#57 yes I confess I have had much fun stirring the pot at gristmill.org, under a different screen name than the one I use here. I got bored eventually and left.
#74 I took that as a statement of his personal position, and in fairness, one that was heavily hedged (ie. “if I should dare to offer an opinion”). It’s a position I don’t personally relate to, but whatever.
I think the trick is not to make “capitalism appealing to the working classes,” since capitalism is pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. The problem is countering lots of socialist guff and misinformation that passes as common knowledge.Posted by daddy dave on 2008 02 19 at 08:00 PM • permalink
Everyone will be pleased to note that my comment here did not survive moderation at “gatewatching”.
Boo hoo freakin’ hoo. And, yes, I’m hardly surprised.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 02 19 at 08:16 PM • permalink
Just went over to see your link in #57 – it was blocked at work – something about not allowing sites for cults/belief systems (unlike here lol).
Either you know what you are talking about or (just as valuably in any blogger ) you make it look like you do (- the method I generally have to attempt).
Administering a website for Steve McIntyre called Climate Audit can cause quote a lot of information to be forced into your brain against your will. That and a thick skin develops.
Sometimes it shows.
Excellent work .
Note to self : Beware of subject blogger . Steer clear unless very sure of subject matter.
This blog is entirely different from gristmill and to Tim’s credit, he doesn’t claim to be all-knowing with perfectly worked-out opinions before he decides to open his mouth or move his keyboard. Sometimes he screws up badly which is where it gets hilarious. And at least Tim has a sense of humour about it all (I loved the crack about the egg thrown at Muralitharan actually being bowled under the current laws of cricket).
I wonder why extreme left-wingers have no sense of humour? Is it the strain of trying to change the world that they think is going to hell in a handbasket?
But I couldn’t argue like I did on gristmill over here. For one thing, it would go right over the top of most posters, and for another, arguing over points of order in climate science is not what this blog is about.
Oh and kae: Piss off to you too 😉
#67, the Marxists aren’t being impenetrable by mistake, they know the worst possible thing would be for people to understand them.
Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2008 02 19 at 10:54 PM • permalink
In some cases, paco, the truth pisses off pretentious leftie twits. Which is fine by me; I can adjust fire accordingly.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 02 20 at 12:00 AM • permalink
- #78 John A, I have a lot of respect for your work in fighting the global warming cult.
However your comment about not posting stuff here that you post at grist.org because it would ‘go over our heads’ is… well, a touch patronising. Personally, I havent found a thread at grist that I can’t follow, and people here are interested in learning more about this topic. I think we could handle it.Posted by daddy dave on 2008 02 21 at 05:17 AM • permalink
Don’t you love how these earnest, melodramatic boneheads create this polemical gulf between the Rudd government – now “in place” – and “the right”? Kevin Rudd was elected almost solely because he gave a series of undertakings to be as much like John Howard as possible. And he won by the narrowest of margins, having apparently blown most of that 20 point lead he supposedly had for months. There’s lots of leftie hubris about for not a lot of reason.