It seems that bloggers can get accredited as news media for the Liberal Leadership Showcase in Toronto this coming weekend. The party must be doing everything possible to add warm bodies at the convention centre for the wrap-up of what has become something of a lame-duck leadership race. You can imagine how annoyed the print media editors and broadcast news directors are about having to pay weekend rates for the professionals to cover this non-event. There just might be a lot of Liberal Party of Canada executives sweating over whether they can make the turn-out look like a crowd.
But it is one of those times when people do come to the aid of their party. It is like back in 1967 when due to the sudden resignation of Andy Thompson, the Ontario Liberals had to have a leadership contest with just one candidate, Robert Nixon. The challenge at that time was just to fill the Canadian Room at the Royal York Hotel for the weekend without losing money. We did and it was good fun. Bob Nixon got a rousing send off for his stint as leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario.
And we did not even have bloggers back then to swell the ranks. Mind you a blog is by definition a web log of a person or group of people in which they can record their ideas, thoughts, opinions or anything else they wish to write. Today, there are even blogs that are video clips. The one thing that a blog is not credible at is news. Since blogs are most often opinions, people would be wise to question whether the content is real news.
What seems to weaken most blogs we read is the overwhelming use of the word “I.” You certainly need a bit more ego than most people to sustain a blog over a long period but to constantly write in the first person is not only boring to the reader but becomes a turn-off.
And if you write honestly on your subject area, your blog can also be something of a piss-off. Babel-on-the-Bay has its share of enemies. We have never forgotten the rather unusual e-mail we received once from a Babel Liberal who said that he did not have time to read Babel-on-the-Bay but had been told how awful we were to certain politicians and so he would not read it. This was not particularly devastating.
While the author has worked very hard at times to improve the level of politics in Babel, there has never been any appreciation expressed for the effort. All we note is that the readership of Babel-on-the-Bay continues to grow. It is also good to see the number of repeat readers. While not all the articles will please every reader, you will occasionally find something of interest. We will just not be reporting from the Toronto Convention Centre this weekend.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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