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

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).

Comments

[Ambercat]

I still don't think that bloggers have that much power.

The Television and the Newspapers are still the scalp takers.

The really unfortunate thing here is that they are supposed to report the news, not make it.

The media is controlled by rich and powerfull people and they are the ones who decide on the stories to pursue.

It would be much more democratic if everyone had a real say, and blogging is most certainly a start.

It will become increasingly difficult for the established media to ignore bloggers.

[Martin Belam]

I think the fact that the story involves two of only a handful of UK political bloggers that the mainstream press pay attention to is significant here.

Oh, and the fact that Hain's actions seem indefensible, otherwise I am sure he would still be clinging on to power.