Person of the year: Bush, not bloggers

Bloggers weren’t named persons of the year by TIME magazine today. Small surprise, George W. Bush did it again, like he did in 2000. But of course it’s not all thumbs up for the President. As he puts it himself: “I don’t expect many short-term historians to write nice things about me.” Nuff said.

But bloggers get their piece of the pie too. TIME writes “10 things we have learned about blogs”:

– Blogging Can Get You Fired

– Bloggers Get Scoops Too

– Bloggers Keep News Alive

– Bloggers Can Be Titillating

– Bloggers Can Be Fakers

– Bloggers Make Money

– Most Bloggers Are Women

– [Presidential] Candidates Love Blogs

– Pets Have Blogs Too

– Anyone Can Do It

Blog discussion in the parliament

Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Education and Culture today discussed blogs with Tobias Billström of the Moderate Party. Due to the story with SVT journalist Per Gudmundson who had to quit blogging, Billström had asked Pagrotsky:

> if he thought that freedom of speech does not include employees of a public service company?

> if he thinks that individual journalists employed in public service companies can not express views in public, even if they are not in direct connection to the work that they do as employees at SVT?

I listened in to the debate and to summarize briefly, Pagrotsky declined any responsibility for the conflict. These issues are regulated in collective agreements between the employer and the union, and therefore he referred to the board of SVT. In other words, in the name of impartiality, it is ok for a public service company to issue a gag order on its employees. I didn’t really expect him to say anything else.

UPDATE: Billström comments on his blog (in Swedish).

Person of the year – a guy in pajamas?

On Sunday, Time magazine will announce the magazine’s Person of the Year, which it has done since 1927. The special issue will be in newsstands on Monday. Some leading contenders are Karl Rove, George W. Bush, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Iraq), Mel Gibson (for The Passion of the Christ) and Michael Moore (for Fahrenheit 911). But the winner can also be a guy or a gal in pajamas – bloggers.

The magazine’s managing editor Jim Kelly gives some hints in an interview on I Want Media. “We got a lot of votes for bloggers as the Persons of the Year.”

IWM: Are bloggers leading contenders to be Persons of the Year?

Kelly: I would say that they are contenders, yes. You could name one blog and call it Blog of the Year, or name a group of people and call them Blogs of the Year. There are six or seven people who clearly have a lot of influence.

Via Micro Persuasion.

The Moderate Party recycles blog entries

Tobias Billström and Sven Otto Littorin of the Moderate Party think alike. So alike that they are posting close to identical entries on their blogs. Billström at Politiskt.nu and Littorin at his own blog.

UPDATE: A few minutes after my posting, Billström changed his post and added a link to Littorin’s post, both in the text (“vi var några som reagerade på det”) and at the bottom of the post (See also Sven Otto Littorin’s original post). In the new version it looks like it is intentional that the posts have the same phrases. It didn’t before.

Billström:

MUF hade rätt!

Av: Tobias Billström (m) den 14 december 2004

För ett tiotal dagar sedan skickade Moderata Ungdomsförbundet ett avslitet hästhuvud i tyg till Byggnads “som symbol för sitt framtida fackliga arbete”. Vi var några som reagerade på det och tyckte att det var lite osmakligt. Allt facket gjorde var ju att driva sin linje om kollektivavtalen.

Men se så enkelt var det inte. Idag trappades konflikten upp – under ropen “go home, go home” blockerade byggfacket de lettiska byggjobbarna att komma in på sin arbetsplats. “De ska få veta att de är ett gäng svartfötter” säger Byggettans ordförande Torgny Jonsson i SvD.

Därmed har Byggnads kastat masken och visat vad frågan egentligen handlar om. Fackfolket har helt enkelt gett sig rollen som självpåtagna gränsstängare och passkontrollanter. Det handlar inte alls om att skydda letterna mot at bli “utnyttjade” av svenska företag. Det handlar om fackets privilegier och om “svenska jobb”, som man så tydligt formulerar det. Som om inte en lett eller polack har samma rättigheter att ta ett jobb i Sverige. Det Byggnads ägnar sig åt är destillerad främlingsfientlighet.

Hur länge skall regeringen ska ge sitt “oreserverade stöd” till dem som använder sådana metoder? På fredag är det en särskild debatt i riksdagens kammare om just den “svenska” kollektivavtalsrsätten. Skall bli mycket intressant att se hur arbetsmarknadsminister Hans Karlsson skall försvara Byggnads agerande.

Det går för övrigt en röd linje mellan ord om “social turism”, “lönedumping” och “svartfötter”, och det är ingen trevlig linje. Noterar förresten att Attac stödjer Byggettan.

Med såna vänner behöver man inga fiender…

Littorin:

MUF hade rätt!

För ett tiotal dagar sedan skickade MUF ett avslitet hästhuvud i tyg till Byggnads “som symbol för sitt framtida fackliga arbete”. Vi var några som reagerade på det och tyckte att det var lite osmakligt. Allt facket gjorde var ju att driva sin linje om kollektivavtalen.

Men se så enkelt var det inte. Idag trappades konflikten upp – under ropen “go home, go home” blockerade byggfacket de lettiska byggjobbarna att komma in på sin arbetsplats. “De ska få veta att de är ett gäng svartfötter” säger Byggettans ordförande Torgny Jonsson i SvD.

Fy fan, säger jag. Och undrar hur länge regeringen ska ge sitt “oreserverade stöd” till dem som använder sådana metoder. Det går en röd linje mellan ord om “social turism”, “lönedumping” och “svartfötter”, och det är ingen trevlig linje.

Noterar förresten att Attac stödjer Byggettan. Jojo, med såna vänner behöver man inga fiender…

Internetworld about blogs

I have been interviewed by Swedish Internetworld in the issue that comes out next week. Apparently I am on the cover as well (second from left). Haven’t read it yet so I hope I say something intelligent…

UPDATE: So I have read the article now, and it looked ok. I just have to correct one fact, namely that I am not a PR consultant. I am working as Marketing Communications Manager at the Swedish office of one of the leading global law firms.

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2004 Weblog Awards – final results

As expected, I had absolutely no chance in the final of the 2004 Weblog Awards, category Best European (Non-UK) Blog. Media Culpa was placed as #8, with a certain frogman grabbing half of all votes. Congrats to the Dissident Frogman and thanks to everyone that voted for me.

1. The Dissident Frogman 50.8%

2. BarcePundit 17.0%

3. A Fistful of Euros 10.8%

4. Hispalibertas 5.3%

5. La Petite Claudine 3.1%

6. The Joy of Knitting 2.4%

7. Elastico 2.3%

8. Media Culpa 1.9%

9. NouS 1.6%

10. Hot Loving gone cold 1.3%

11. Le Blaugue à Beleg 1.3%

12. Burp 1.0%

13. Turkish Torque 0.7%

14. NevOn 0.5%