Comment: Beware of the blog

By Paul Trotter

Posted on 30 Mar 2005 at 16:58

An uncontrollable force is taking over cyberspace. It's leading to the downfall of major media figures, potentially libelling respected companies, and providing a bit of a free-for-all for anyone with a grudge to bear.

But it also adds valuable checks and balances to the world's media, brings new ways for IT companies to measure interest in their products before release and, at times, provides Net surfers with access to news that wouldn't otherwise be available. Blogging has come of age.

Their number is increasing: according to research firm Technorati, a new blog is created every 7.4 seconds, which means there are about 12,000 new blogs a day. The number of people visiting these sites is also rising, although you have to go through a lot of piffle before finding something really interesting. But every now and then, the mainstream media will do it for you. From humble beginnings, a personal diary will attract millions of hits and then drive the traditional media's news agenda. A case of the tail wagging the dog.

The latest victim is CNN chief executive Eason Jordan. He was forced to resign following a comment he made about the Iraq war in an off-the-record discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He is alleged to have said he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, they had in fact been targeted.

Normally, this would have been huge news without the intervention of a blogger, but the key phrase here is 'off-the-record', an unwritten rule among journalists that's usually respected in such prestigious surroundings as the World Economic Forum.

In this instance, it didn't strictly mean the comment couldn't be published: the discussion panel was carried out under what's known as the 'Chatham House Rule', a creation of the Royal Institute of International Affairs that's designed to promote a degree of openness among world leaders. However, according to the 'rule', 'participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.'
But these old media guidelines carry no weight with those who have turned their computer terminals into self-styled publishing houses. Sitting among the delegates in the audience was Rony Abovitz, founder of a medical technology company based in Florida. He has no grounding in old media journalism, but he has a blog.

He challenged Jordan on his claim and, despite the CNN chief backtracking, before long the words were available on the Web. Soon after, Jordan was forced to resign.

It's further evidence that the blog is becoming a potent force, but this fact has been well known in the technology industry for some time. It's no surprise that executives at IT firms - by definition, tech-savvy individuals who keep an eye on online trends - are encouraging their organisations to monitor blogs. Software developers, for example, have been known to release pieces of information about upcoming products to see the reaction the plans get online.

The case of Jordan and, before him, Dan Rather - the CBS anchorman toppled by an Internet campaign following a flawed story about George W Bush - shows that blogs have the potential to bite the hand that feeds them. But the media in general has welcomed them. We had the Baghdad blogger, whose account of the US invasion of Iraq became one of the world's most popular blogs two years ago. We've got blogging MPs, who see the medium as the perfect way to make the connection with constituents. And we have blogging 'insiders'.