{"id":589,"date":"2007-09-08T02:08:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-08T08:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=589"},"modified":"2007-09-08T02:08:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-08T08:08:00","slug":"andrew-keen-cult-of-the-contrarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/09\/andrew-keen-cult-of-the-contrarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Keen: cult of the contrarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

M<\/span>artin Stabe<\/span> must be on performance enhancing drugs – his posting levels are through the roof. It\u2019s all good<\/a> stuff<\/a>, especially on the Richard Sambrook<\/a> vs. Andrew Keen<\/a> showdown at the Frontline. Keen\u2019s new media vs. old media gamble is that infamy as the blogosphere\u2019s contrarian punchbag will help sell<\/a> his book<\/a>. (<\/span>Jeff Jarvis<\/span> memorably called Keen\u2019s bluff in this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, as strategies go, it\u2019s not exactly rope-a-dope<\/a>, and in the rather unequal intellectual battle (given Keen\u2019s flyweight thesis), Richard Sambrook appears to have KOed him. Take this exchange<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Keen had argued that journalists \u201cshould be more arrogant\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a crisis of confidence in mainstream journalists,\u201d Keen said. \u201cThey need to be more arrogant…\u201d<\/p>\n

… Sambrook disputed this view, saying that the real problem is that there isn\u2019t enough humility or transparency in journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we do have expertise or skill, but we we\u2019re not going to get the credit that may be conferred on that if we behave arrogantly or say \u2018we know best\u2019,\u201d said Sambrook.<\/p>\n

When Keen challenged Sambrook to offer an example where the BBC has been \u201creally screwed up\u201d or should have shown more humility, Sambrook mentioned the crisis that engulfed the BBC following Andrew Gilligan\u2019s May 2003 Today<\/span> programme report that the Blair government had, against the wishes of intelligence agencies, \u201csexed up\u201d a dossier on the case for going to war in Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, after walking into that one, Keen could sell advertising space on the soles of his shoes.<\/p>\n

Still, I would though take issue with Sambrook\u2018s account of the Hutton Inquiry. Gilligan was sloppy and<\/span> his story was wrong.<\/p>\n

Police officers caught framing villains, don\u2018t get far with the defence – \u201cBut they were villains!\u201d Journalists, similarly, should not be allowed to Gene Hunt<\/a> their way out of trouble.<\/p>\n

But that, as they say, is another story.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Stabe must be on performance enhancing drugs – his posting levels are through the roof. It\u2019s all good stuff, especially on the Richard Sambrook vs. Andrew Keen showdown at the Frontline. Keen\u2019s new media vs. old media gamble is that infamy as the blogosphere\u2019s contrarian punchbag will help sell his book. (Jeff Jarvis memorably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","tag-bbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}