The Revenge Of The RailGate Nerds.....

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.....DIY Edition

NewMediaToTheRescue
CitizensOfJVille

Yesterday was reasonably interesting from a RailGate point of view.

Which is kind of strange if you stop to consider the fact that the court proceedings themselves are, once again, nowhere to be found.

Anyway, first there was Mike de Jong's total eclipse of the reality sun-type response to Leonard Krog's point of privilege in the British Columbia Legislature (see line 1815).

Then there was Tom Hawthorn's profile of the hardest working man in the RailGate press gallery, blogger Bill Tieleman, in the Globe and (nolongerEmpire)Mail.

One of the things I liked most about the piece was that it laid Mr. T's political affiliations out on the table but did not denigrate them:

In between bouts of journalism, Mr. Tieleman worked as communications director for then-NDP-premier Glen Clark for six months and handled communications for the B.C. Federation of Labour for six years. He will mark the 10th anniversary of launching his West Star Communications consultancy later this year.

Which is quite a contrast, indeed, to the insinuations of another commentator also writing in the Globe not so long ago that we have already discussed at some length.

There was even a little, 'ahem', slightly off-colour humour in the thing which, if it were to occur, would probably do for RailGate what the 'duet' between Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon has done for the career of Jimmie Kimmel*.

Heckfire, Mr. Hawthorn even went out of his way to mention Robin Mathews and our own favorite Ms. Mary.

But still, I couldn't help but note the condescension in Mr. Hawthorn's words when he said:

Mr. Mathews's cynicism about the judiciary is never far from the surface and BC Mary's conspiratorial musings about the motives of CanWest journalists are pointlessly distracting.


Which, of course, is codwallopicism in the extreme.

Because I could pick through the stuff of any of Lotusland's pro-media columnists, or radio talk show hosts, over the last year and-a-half or so (ie. the approximate length of time that Mary's place has been going flat out) and I could dig up literally dozens of examples of ridiculous opinions, or worse, that were based on little or nothing at all.

Which definitely has not been the case re: Mary's opinions about the press coverage, or lack thereof, of the Railgate proceedings.

And the thing is, the pro-journo people are paid to do what they do.

And they have researchers and producers and editors and publicity machines to help people pick up the phone and answer their calls.

Whereas, all a blogger has is what they, and their audience, can do, to do it DIY.

So the decks are all stacked against them from the beginning.

But if they're good they'll have staying power.

Which is precisely what both Mr Tieleman and Ms. Mary have.

OK?

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*The actual Silverman/Damon coupling can be found at the tube of you - but be careful because it is most definitely NOT keyboard safe. It is, however, hilarious (as for the comeback with Ben Affleck?......not so much).


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