Your Media is Less Valuable Than Mine?

Once in a while, I come across a post that perfectly expresses something that I’ve been struggling to articulate. In particular, of late I’ve been trying to explain concisely why I find the “oh, blogs are just people ranting on the internet” view I get from so many journalists so worrying.

[This post from Euan Semple is the prefect response](http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2007/05/what_if_shakesp.html "The Obvious?: What if Shakespeare had been told "we can't all be Shakespeares"?"):

What is it about society – especially, I would suggest, here in Britain – that expressing your opinion is somehow seen as impolite or arrogant?

I find the attitude that only certain people should have the right to say what they think impossible to understand these days and deeply worrying. It is that sort of attitude that gives people power and the ability to misuse it.

Nobody’s suggesting that all blog content is good. Counter-examples to that idea are rife. But dismissing everything written on blogs simply because of the ease of access to the medium is just worrying. And wrong.