-->

Boris Johnson for London Mayor?

Yes the rumour mill is flying, but even if he does go forward, and people look at him and see a well crafted buffoon character, read this little gem from his website and ask yourself if he gets it…

I have now been writing columns in this newspaper for almost 20 years, and in the past couple of years the game has completely changed. We fat-cat columnists face a new and terrifying threat. It is called consumerism. It is called democracy.

For the first time we must come face to face with our readers – hordes of lynx-eyed brainboxes out there in cyberspace – and no sooner do our words appear on the website than they can be abusively peer-reviewed and fact-checked.

Our judgments are mocked, our non sequiturs are skewered. Journalists – these feral characters that Blair claims to fear – are increasingly accountable, increasingly vulnerable to the pithy rejoinders of the man or woman on the net.

And this is the key point: it is not so much that politics and journalism are increasingly tawdry or despised. It is the growing media literacy of the public – the understanding of soundbites and vox pops and two-ways and blogs – that allows everyone to participate in activities once reserved for the journalistico-political complex.

Boris Johnson

Discuss.

July 13, 2007; Politics;

Possibly Related posts:

If this is your first time here, why not consider subscribing to my RSS feed?

Comments

Leave a Reply