;)
"What are we going to do about the lawyers?"
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 20:13 An amusing and occasionally percipient column by Boris Johnson; he's writing about the relationship between the Internet and thoughtful politicking and journalism et cetera, in the aftermath of Tucson. Politicians are becoming aware that it's not just the professional chatterers they need to be wary of:
... And now, at last, the journalists are getting something like the same treatment; and of course, as a politician who loves writing, I must tremble before the wrath of pheasantplucker [an anonymous commenter--MP], but I also rejoice at the change that has taken place. A broadcast has been turned into a dialogue. When we write our pieces, thousands of eyes are scanning them for errors of fact and taste – and now our critics cannot only harrumph and curse us. They can tell the world – in seconds – where they think we have gone wrong. We are not just writing columns, we are writing wiki-columns, and if we sometimes get beaten up, we also have the satisfaction of gaining the odd grunt of agreement.
Politicians are being held to account by journalists; journalists are being held to account by their readers – and it cannot be long, the internet being what it is, before the wind of popular scrutiny blows through all the bourgeois professions. What are we going to do about the lawyers?
I wish I knew an appropriate lawyer joke. @Londiniensis g a.
