Bullard stirs blogosphere

DAVID BULLARD’S recent column “Name and shame offensive bloggers” on Sunday Times has stirred the blogosphere.

Vincent Maher did not mince words, as he answered every point made by Bullard. He says:

“I hereby dub this Bullardgate. David Bullard launched an attack on bloggers in the Sunday Times today that cannot be allowed to stand. His invective is simply not acceptable from a journalist of the calibre he claims to be.”

Poynter Institute’s Amy Gahran also highlighted this recent row, and has even pointed to more reactions from bloggers and journalists alike.

She writes:

My opinion: It strikes me as ironic that Bullard wrote in his now-infamous column: “Unlike the world of newsprint, there are no rules out there in the blogosphere and that makes it a very confusing place.” Hmmm… Looking over Bullard’s grossly misinformed generalizations and borderline hate speech, I’ve got to wonder: Exactly which “newsprint rules” applied at the Sunday Times in deciding whether to run this particular column?

Regardless of what you think of weblogs, it seems to me that bald-faced bigotry of any kind should have no place in a responsible news organization.

Bullard has compared “most bloggers” to air guitars of journalism. Air guitar describes an act that mimics the actual playing of a guitar without the instrument. He writes:

Allow me to explain what I mean. I used to play air guitar with a band called Deep Purple. My playing was perfect, I had attitude and I even smashed my air guitar at the end of the number. The reason I played air guitar is that I couldn’t play real guitar very well so I was forced to dwell in this fantasy world where my guitar playing meant something only to me. I should point out that this was years ago when I was still young and foolish. These days I play air tenor saxophone, which is far more challenging.

Most blog sites are the air guitars of journalism. They’re cobbled together by people who wouldn’t stand a hope in hell of getting a job in journalism, mainly because they have very little to say. It’s rather sad how many people think the tedious minutiae of their lives will be of any interest to anyone else.

Of course, Sunday Times also featured the reactions of the bloggers in a special section called David Bullard and the Blogosphere. The website linked at least 15 reactions from prominent bloggers. In PR lingo, this is what you call mileage, heh.

Also, it seems that Bullard is not taking this issue sitting down. In fact, in a series of video clips Sunday Times made, it seems the columnist is enjoying this attention.

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