Posted by Randy Barnett:
The Devalued Prime Minister of a Devalued Government:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_22-2009_03_28.shtml#1238008076
From a speech yesterday in the European Parliament by Member Daniel
Hannan (sans teleprompter) to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown:
[EMBED]
From his [1]blog:
The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever.
Twenty-four hours ago, I made a three-minute speech in the European
Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown. I tipped off the BBC and some of
the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly, they ignored me:
I am, after all, simply a backbench MEP.
When I woke up this morning, my phone was clogged with texts, my
email inbox with messages. Overnight, the YouTube clip of my
remarks had attracted over 36,000 hits. By today, it was the most
watched video in Britain.
How did it happen, in the absence of any media coverage? The answer
is that political reporters no longer get to decide what's news.
The days when a minister gave briefings to a dozen lobby
correspondents, and thereby dictated the next day's headlines, are
over. Now, a thousand bloggers decide for themselves what is
interesting. If enough of them are tickled then, bingo, you're
news. (Huge thanks to all the American bloggers: you chaps are way
ahead of us in this regard.)
What caught their attention? To be honest, I'm slightly perplexed.
I have been making similar speeches every week and posting them on
YouTube for the past seven months. I made one just now: 60 seconds
on how Brussels is spraying money at the European Investment Bank
(see above clip). Perhaps people felt frustrated about the way
Gordon Brown had carried on without once asking for their votes.
Perhaps they would have loved to tell him what they thought of him,
but lacked the opportunity.
Breaking the press monopoly is one thing. But the internet has also
broken the political monopoly. Ten or even five years ago, when the
Minister for Widgets put out a press release, the mere fact of his
position guaranteed a measure of coverage. Nowadays, a politician
must compel attention by virtue of what he is saying, not his
position.
It's all a bit unsettling for professional journalists and
politicians. But it's good news for libertarians of every stripe.
Lefties have always relied on control, as much of information as of
physical resources. Such control is no longer technically feasible.
FWIW Hannon initially favored Obama over McCain in [2]January '08
before becoming undecided in [3]September.
References
1. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/Daniel_Hannan
2.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/01/13/the_conservative_case_for_barack_obama
3.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/09/27/i_was_a_conservative_for_obama_now_i_cant_decide
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
