Hive Mentality in NBR

A mention of blogs in the National Business Review‘s Hive Mentality column:

4. Don’t sniff the potatoes

Technology promised to make every citizen with a cellphone a journalist. Instead, everyone is a potential stalker. As America gears up for its “YouTube election,” the combination of online and cellphone video is making its presence felt here too.

The left has scrambled, but made ground quickly in these tabloid stakes. The Standard, a Labour Party mouthpiece blog, has uploaded sly video footage of John Key sniffing vegetables in an unwieldy fashion at a market – the left-wing sequel to the Exclusive Brethren’s tasteless rubbish-rummaging of minister’s last year. The Standard also led the “John Key illegal downloads” story.

On the right, the National Party’s David Farrar made the early running online with careful analytical posts; Farrar’s talent is summarising complex issues for journalists simply but comprehensively, but not so much so that readers could come to a different conclusion to him.

It’s a pity I can’t post the whole column – it’s very good.