Ollie Kamm On Political Blogging

No, sorry, I don't buy this argument at all. Here it is again at the blog with no comments section.

Such is the ideological chaos of modern Conservatism. Osborne invoked the notion of the wisdom of crowds: knowledge emerges in a collaborative process rather than being dictated by experts. But political bloggers are not the required type of crowd. They are, by definition, a self-selecting group of the politically motivated who have time on their hands.

If we're going to bring Surowiecki into this, Galton's Ox and all that, then we need to remember something about the argument. Yes, self-selecting groups are are not as good as having everyone's opinion. But there are levels of self-selection: it's rather like the argument over free markets. That no truly and absolutely free market exists does not mean that arguing for freer rather than more restricted markets has no value.

So if political blogs are too restricted a group (encompassing, as they do, everyone from Lenin's Tomb to well, places like this for example) are they a more or less restricted  group than those at Westminster and those overwhelmingly Oxbridge upper middle class types who are the editorial staff of the nation's newspapers, TV and radio stations?

Less restricted, obviously, and thus in this argument, therefore better.

I also find it a rather remarkable argument from one whose rise to the punditoracy was in fact driven by his own political blogging. Smacks of pulling up the ladder rather.

Blogs are providers not of news but of comment. This would be a good thing if blogs extended the range of available opinion in the public sphere. But they do not; paradoxically, they narrow it. This happens because blogs typically do not add to the available stock of commentary: they are purely parasitic on the stories and opinions that traditional media provide.

I would take issue with that as well. Oliver might want to talk to one of those who commissions him, Daniel Finkelstein. The press furore over the Abolition of Parliament Bill was triggered by this short blog post. It's a two way process, not a one way one.