Monday, August 13, 2007

Hacks against the wall

In which I take a look at mainstream news journalism and social networking sites at one and the same time and shake my fist at them in an exceptionally tetchy manner.

9 comments:

Annie said...

God, your trolls are ignorant.

There, I said it, even though it sounds like the opening line of a strange religious poem.

patroclus said...

I just left a terribly inelegant comment, sorry about that.

Tim F said...

"God, your trolls are ignorant
And your elves are hairy.
Your ogres suck, your gnomes are lame;
Amen, amen. Hail Mary!"


Something like that, Annie?

Perfectly elegant as ever, P, and a sound point (although a resourceful but lazy journalist would surely endeavour to befriend as many linguistically challenged teenagers as possible, to enable him/her to scour the sites for inane expressions of grief as and when the time came). But not quite as elegant this time as Mr Swipe, who with his comment brilliantly turns Cif into a social networking site, thus compacting form and function, message and medium into one scrunched-up ball of semiotic Kleenex.

patroclus said...

It was a rubbish point, and I retracted it and replaced it with a better one.

I'd like to see Bob Swipe single-handedly take on the UK government's internet sanitisation forces. That would be entertaining.

Annie said...

Who is this Bob Swipe dude that everyone talks about?

Annie said...

And yes, Tim, something exactly like that, thanks!

Tim F said...

Go here, Annie.

West said...

"Who is this Bob Swipe dude that everyone talks about?"

"One of the best writers we've got"
Sunday Times

"Mr. [Swipe] is a very special one indeed, the talent of a poet exploding through the confines of a novel and making magic out of the wreckage."
Irish Times

But underneath all that genius, I'm just a big old softy who's a sucker for a belter of a tune, Annie R.

So, Tim; got my ticket for the Pompey game. Do you want me to get you a programme? Three quid. You can take it off the commission for all those sales of Welcome to the Machine: how I took on on the UK government's internet sanitisation forcessinglehandedly. Oh blow that! You deserve a prezzy for so deconstructing me so shrewdly. See, Annie? Just a big old squidgy-widgy softy after all!

L.U.V. on y'all,

Bob

Tim F said...

That's lovely of you, Bobster, thanks, but I only collect programmes in which the players look like members of the Glitter Band.