Andrew Marr has never really had much time for blogs and bloggers. In fact you could go so far as to say he has been downright rude about them in the past (so just remember he started this). In October 2010 Marr famously branded bloggers:
"Socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy...bald...young men".
This from a man who in recent years has hardly troubled the judges of the husband of the year competition and might in another era have found himself hounded out of town by angry villagers for his looks.
He continued:
"...so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night. It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism."
Wind the clock forward a year-and-a-half and Marr's position, shared with the Leveson Inquiry, seems to have changed a little. Far from dismissing them out of hand, now Marr suggests political bloggers at least should be subject to many of the same considerations as journalists:
"[Bloggers] are a new thing and they are a very influential new thing. A lot of newspapers are picking them up and using them as commentators now. So I think the old distinction between a political player and a would-be political journalist is breaking down. Successful blogs survive by advertising, like newspapers do, so they are not so far away as they might appear."
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