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February 21, 2008
It seems fair to say that one of the best ways to attract bloggers' attention is to say something about them in mainstream media, preferably The Australian. Even better, say something inflammatory about one of the better known ones.
If you were looking for notoriety though, you'd pick one that was both well known and well respected. And you'd do it in a blog format in plain, accessible language so everyone could participate in the riot you'd started.
Go Shanahan.
It's not as if he could pretend he didn't anticipate the result. This sort of thing does wonders for what used to be called circulation figures. William Bowe's not doing too badly out of it either, except he won't be selling advertising on the basis of hit counts.
Kim over at LP sees this and Janet (Planet) Albrechtson's recent venom spits in the context of the recently declared peace. Australia is now being treated to a new order of civility in public debate, and this is apparently how it's going to work.
Civility aside (obviously), if they were starting to feel a bit irrelevant, successfully baiting the very people who'd been seeing them that would would be a pretty sure-fire plan, would it not? Assuming of course, that they do plan. Another way would have been to engage with bloggers, maybe even on their own turf, instead of hiding behind the Great Wall of Murdoch. But public debate in media is about selling advertising first and last. Debate is incidental.
A few of them have ventured into independent comments threads under their own names, but that's still rare. So what passes for public debate is still conducted largely in controlled space where there's no real opportunity for public participation. Public debate remains a misnomer.
Still, it's tremendous fun, as a lot of largely pointless things are. And I suppose that if stirring up the blogosphere is the only way they can maintain their relevance, more power to them. Compassion requires some sympathy for them, within limits. And besides, making fun of Brendan Nelson was getting a bit boring.
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Trolling is a well known method for getting eyeballs.