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On hobby horses

One argument I frequently encounter when I talk to journalists and editors about blogging, is how bloggers are untrustworthy because they have all sorts of hobby horses. Now, I could say a lot about that proposition, but I have one of those days with little time for blogging (and, yes, I do have a few comments and emails I hope to get back to as soon as I can), so instead of trying to line up some profound arguments, I'll just leave you with this quote I nicked from Siobhain Butterworth:

Laurence Sterne wrote in Tristram Shandy: "Have not the wisest of men in all ages, not excepting Solomon himself, have they not had their hobby horses; their running horses, their coins and their cockle-shells, their drums and their trumpets, their fiddles, their pallets, their maggots and their butterflies? And so long as a man rides his hobby horse peaceably and quietly along the King's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him, pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?"

Comments

That's weird why the "hobby horse" argument is being put forth. It implies that some bloggers have obsessions, which is true, but it is also pretty clear that a considerable number of bloggers have specialized knowledge in what they write about.

It would seem to me that to use the hobby horse argument would involve conceding that a blogger might know a field better than a beat reporter.

Do most people you encounter say that any given blogger has a number of hobby horses, and that's the problem?

A friend's post that might be of interest on the same topic is here:

http://gracchii.blogspot.com/2007/02/benefits-of-blogging.html

No, the people I encounter who use this argument tend to say bloggers can't be trusted because they have agendas, interests, hobby horses. Whereas journalists, as we all know, don't:-)

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