tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post8707051018301041304..comments2023-11-02T10:43:15.185+00:00Comments on DENVERSTROPE: The Swarm IntelligenceUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post-89930868063646476442009-12-01T02:39:20.879+00:002009-12-01T02:39:20.879+00:00Sorry I haven't replied sooner - been rather b...Sorry I haven't replied sooner - been rather busy. I appreciate the comments: all illuminating and excellent.<br /><br />Adam, I agree with you - not sure the MSM is dead either for the reasons you give.<br /><br />BHS: I saw that comment before you pulled it. Seemed OK to me, mate ;)<br /><br />WW: We'll have to put up a fight, then!Jon Lishmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07272058035800593800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post-42307091856194602062009-11-30T17:34:35.705+00:002009-11-30T17:34:35.705+00:00The BBC sat on the story. There can be no other ex...The BBC sat on the story. There can be no other explanation for it.<br /><br />The important thing about the MSM is that they have lost control of the agenda - primarily a left-leaning liberal one.<br /><br />I think the best indicator of this is how you and I react to a breaking story. In the old days, the first port of call was the BBC. Now it is Guido or one of the many others who make sure things are not overlooked. Dan Hannan was a case in point. The BBC would not touch the Dan Hannan rips Gordon Brown a new Aerosol story until it became part of the story itself for NOT reporting it.<br /><br />Yes, we are pulling power back to the people. How long we have before this is stamped on, I don't know, but plenty of people in the Establishment are making noises about censoring the blogosphere by making it difficult for lone bloggers to operate.Wrinkled Weaselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05291551539649118631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post-59343029659462262342009-11-30T13:09:10.960+00:002009-11-30T13:09:10.960+00:00Deleted that because the language was a bit too ha...Deleted that because the language was a bit too harsh to expect others to carry it without reservations.<br /><br />There, see, self-censorship - I'll be in the AGW vanguard before you know it =)black hole sunsethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13754977921603292534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post-60509971174146417372009-11-30T11:20:57.792+00:002009-11-30T11:20:57.792+00:00Thanks Adam, those are fair points. There seem to...Thanks Adam, those are fair points. There seem to be a kind of synergy between the blogosphere eroding MSM/Government control over what people know, and increasingly shrill, desperate attempts by Governments to secure their own tenure in perpetuity. Politicians who actually find the latter proposition unpalatable are, sadly, rather few in number. All the rest, I fear, secretly find the idea rather spiffing (Speaker Bercow, as an example picked at random).<br /><br />The technology that's given us the blogosphere has a wicked double edge. It's never been easier for States to monitor and analyse their populations in excruciating detail. Much of the nebulous, Old World fear of peasant mobs, armed with pitchforks and burning torches, arriving unexpectedly in the dead of night is gone. What we've gained on one hand, as demonstrated by Climategate, we've lost on the other by having our every movement, transaction and communication made push-button-easy to intercept, record and analyse.<br /><br />We know them better and they know us better, it would seem, but the apparent symmetry of the information technology revolution is dangerously deceptive.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the blogosphere would be extremely easy to shut down and/or censor. The blogosphere might operate in the style of a distributed, fault tolerant grid but the infrastructure is highly centralised and dependent on a State approval wherever it operates. Google, of "don't be evil" fame, has censored the term Climategate from their text prediction database. Yahoo, (in)famously, shopped Chinese dissidents to the authorities in order to "keep their foot in the door". When push comes to shove, corporations, with meaninglessly few exceptions, will tow *any* line rather than perish. The internet ain't no samizdat.<br /><br />That the MSM is still covering up Climategate can only be a sign of weakness and fear on their part. Most MSM outlets that fall below the profitability threshold will evaporate rather more quickly than the Berlin wall fell. They might still set the agenda but they're all facing some kind of abyss over the next decade.black hole sunsethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13754977921603292534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post-80906549157384872172009-11-30T00:10:46.106+00:002009-11-30T00:10:46.106+00:00I do agree with you. I'm not sure the "MS...I do agree with you. I'm not sure the "MSM" are dead yet though. Ultimately they do still set the political agenda - most political blog posts are fed by MSM stories, aren't they? The BBC News website is in the world top 10 (unfortunately)!<br /><br />Personally I think this affair is illustrating a more significant truth - that the blogosphere is undermining the power of rulers and governments. Do you think things like Climategate didn't happen before the internet, or do you think people just didn't know about it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278366793340877738.post-68537395315454106912009-11-29T20:58:10.175+00:002009-11-29T20:58:10.175+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.black hole sunsethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13754977921603292534noreply@blogger.com