Saturday, February 18, 2006  In Defence of Blogging  What is
blogging? Is it worthwhile or is it a form of self-indulgence?
It's both, of course. Trevor Butterworth in today's Financial
Times Magazine tries to deliver a death blow to blogging by
characterizing bloggers as get-rich-quick spoilt brats with too
much time on their hands and an inflated sense of ego.
Journalists, by implication, are thoughtful and altruistic in
their vocation. The feeling generated by Butterworth's
collection of quotes (which you can tell are out of context),
errors, and mealy-mouthed expressions is one of pique and
petulance, even, dare I say it, a sense of inviolable monopoly
being threatened. Poor Butterworth. What is it that upsets him
about blogging?  A number of untested assumptions underlie
Butterworth's article. They are: (a) bloggers are in it to get
fame, (b) bloggers want to make money out of blogging, and (c)
bloggers suffer from verbal diarrhea.  Butterworth says,
according to, there are 27 million blogs (now over 28m