... is that the terminally smug and self-important David Bullard thinks that he's a real journalist, and therefore qualified to comment on other people's writings. He's not. Just because you have a column in the murky reaches of the Sunday Times does not make you a journalist, Dave, however much you think it does. The reality is that things like blogging and citizen journalism are modern phenomena that are not going to go away. In fact, many bloggers get more eyeballs across their pages than you do - could that be what's rattling your whisky glass, Dave? Or is it the fact that better writers with more compelling opinions are starting to show you up? Oh, and let me know when you get around to doing a piece or two of real journalism - you know, gather facts, do some research, actually do some work. I might even post it on my blog ...

... if another person tells me how WITTY and simply SCORCHING DB is I think I'll just have to emigrate - I mean, he IS a national treasure, makes the middle classes feel so VINDICATED and safe, like they'd recognise actual satire if it ... actually, when was the last time you read/saw any really good satire? Tom Eaton's often good

I'm so glad David Bullard has expressed publicly what I've always thought - that blogging is mostly an indulgence by people who think others care about what they think or write. With flair and authority, this opinion leader mangaged to brand blogging for what it is.

Well said David...i couldn't agree more... i find it hard to believe that some people actually spend time blogging...i mean really...i actually find some of the topics inane and in need of a simplistically dexterous flavour!

Quite dweeboic i say!!!!

I couldn't agree more with Bullard's sentiments on most blogs. Far from being threatened by them (as is implied) he, as an intelligent reader of a variety of media, is probably as appalled by the unrestrained pouring of emotion, personal viewpoint and linguistic aberrations that the medium allows its journalistic acolytes to thrust upon us.
The virtual space has been a nursery for immature ramblings for too long. It's time for (most) bloggers to grow up, acquire a dictionary and get a life.

Is it fair to attack a group of people and compare them to mass murderers in from of an audience of 3.5 million people?

The funniest thing about it is that all the things he dislikes about blogs - random rants, inaccuracy, personal and subjective experience masquerading as truth - are present in his own column.

So the Sunday Times has responded with a five-part videocast from Bullard [www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=455225], which I find immature, to say the least. The glee... The taunting... It's funny but juvenile.

And now Bullard has a blog and has blogrolled all the bloggers who have responded to him... www.davidbullard.wordpress.com

Blogging means many different things to many different people, it's not simply personal drivel and certainly nobody is forcing you to read it.

If you fail to see that then I don't understand how you can generalize with such ignorance and short-sightedness like you do.

The reason why our favourite liberal(old) columnist is so anti everything right now is because of all the bad karma in his life right now. i think he has become very anti everything. he needs to heel.

http://www.technorati.com/search/david+bullard

They are not impressed at all...

Just read Bullard's column and must say that a lot of what he accuses bloggers of he is very guilty. The whole 'Fred and I' thing is just so vain I nearly stopped reading. He goes on as if he has no choice but to read peoples blogs and as if all bloggers claimed that they wanted to be journalists! What arrogance! For sure some people can't write well and they may be excited by what I find boring but damn if I'm not interested in their blogs I move on. I don't find many newspaper columnists interesting so I don't waste my time reading them. Bullard must just get over himself... Blogging is not commercial media so it doesn't need any quality regulation - it's a free space!