A couple of interesting things happened today online.
The Guardian came in for a lot of stick from some blogs for letting an online discussion about assasinating George W Bush take place on its Talk area.
This is what the page looks like now.
Then Norman Geras spotted a BBC article describing the Malaysian Prime Minister’s anti-semitic tirade as an “uncompromising” speech.
Norm notes in an update:The BBC site, not ten minutes after I pasted and copied the ‘uncompromising’ characterization from it, had been cleaned up. The characterization had gone. So had the lines I quoted following it. Who’ve they got writing these reports? ‘Uncompromising’!
Blog power? Well, it is unlikely that the BBC or the Guardian have people browsing weblogs for criticism of their sites but it is entirely possible that readers of weblogs take it upon themselves to send emails to the sites complaining and then action is taken.
If this is what is happening then blogs are playing a useful role as an instant feedback mechanism.
Having said that, the attempt by some right-wing bloggers to score points against the Guardian based on what some unknown idiot placed on their internet message boards (the always cheap Andrew Sullivan called it a “new low for the anti-war paper”) are as pathetic as they are tediously predictable.