England for Obama

Sarah Palin is the political equivalent of Tourette Syndrome. You don’t want to talk about her. You really don’t want to talk about her. And yet she keeps popping up, bursting out of your mouth (or more precisely: blog post) like some sort of unwanted yet uncontrollable expletive. Try as I might, I can’t stop writing about her. Because she keeps, y’know, doin’ stuff.

Mind you, I do think it’s legitimate to raise this new Sarah Palin attack. Because it’s an attack on me. Oh, and you. For reading me.

That’s right: Sarah Palin has attacked blogging. As surely as night follows day (except in Alaska, where night follows night), Palin is now criticising not just the “filter” of the mainstream media but the filter of the blogosphere, too.

According to Sarah, bloggers sit in their parents’ basements (or presumably just the one basement, if their parents aren’t divorced), “wearing their pyjamas and blogging some kind of gossip or lie”:

Well, I’ve got news for you, Sarah: I don’t live with my parents any more. And they never owned a basement in the first place. I will, however, admit to the “pyjamas” part. I regard it as one of the perks of the job (who wouldn’t work in their pyjamas if they could?) – and guess what, Sarah? Sometimes I blog in my pyjamas from my bed. Put that in your moose chilli and smoke it!

Ahem.

But on that point about blogs versus the “real” media: as Rachel Maddow jokingly notes, who’s to say that those who write in their pyjamas are to be taken less seriously than those who write in suits? (And what if you sit at home writing your blog in a suit?) Unsurprisingly for a blogger, I think that while the blogosphere is clearly not exactly equivalent to the mainstream media (any Tom, Dick or Harry can set up a blog. Not any Tom, Dick or Harry can get a job on the New York Times), it should absolutely be considered alongside such media as an important news source.

Indeed, if this year’s election proved anything, it’s how valuable blogging has become in the provision of news and information for an electorate which has previously been forced to rely on the corporate-owned, politically motivated likes of Fox News. The internet and its resulting independent news websites and blogs have shown that the public no longer has to depend on the old media – and the government – for information. Bush and co. only giving you their version of the Iraq war? Don’t worry – you can watch Al Jazeera online. Sarah Palin denying something? No matter – someone, somewhere will have posted the footage proving she said it. Busy British person who hasn’t got the time to sift through all the current news stories about the American election? No problem – England For Obama has done the work for you.

Like I say: if Sarah Palin attacks you, you must be doing something right. And if politicians are begging for mercy, you must be doing something really right. Here’s to Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas, Jed Lewison, AKMuckraker, Andrew Sullivan, Bob Cesca, the blogosphere and all who sail in her. Huzzah!

And now I’m off to get dressed.