Blogging

Is Peter Hain's resignation UK's first blogging scalp?

Kristine Lowe

26 Jan 2008 — 1 min read

Remember the Swedish blogger who brought down a trade minister? Well it seems the story is repeating itself in the UK. Iain Dale suggests it was blogger Guido Fawkes who through is relentless campaign forced Hain's resignation as Work and Pensions secretary, and Guido certainly thinks so himself (he details his 18-month stalking of Hain here).

According to Greenslade: Mick Fealty (aka Slugger O'Toole), also thinks Guido did well. In a Daily Telegraph blog posting, he says there is more to Guido's gossip than meets the eye.
"His supreme value as a blogger is that he knows how to follow a story", writes Fealty. "Undoubtedly he kept a lot of psychological pressure on the former secretary for works and pensions directly and vicariously through his readers/fans/detractors in the lobby."

This story reminded me of Arianna Huffington's brilliant line (via Sambrook) on the difference between bloggers and journalists: "Bloggers suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, journalists suffer from Attention deficit disorder." In other words, journalists report and move on and don't always follow up. Bloggers are obsessive, get hold of an issue and won't let go....

That must make a blogging journalist such as myself bipolar (or schizophrenic).

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