A fair point, well made, Mark.

I imagine by now everyone involved in this little debacle has learnt the lessons made available to them and that in future, everyone within Edelman will continue to blog in an open, honest and genuine fashion.

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma – Eartha Kitt

I posted several times praising Richard Edleman for his early and wise move to the blogosphere. I admire his writing. We should also be able to question his actions when we feel they are wrong.

That aside, I’d agree with you in the main, Grahame, that we need to constantly question what is being written and the exchange of confilcting ideas and opinions guarantees this. To live in a country where everyone agreed with each other would make for pretty boring and two-dimensional reading. Neither would it help nurture creative, abstract and independent thought leading to economic, social and cultural developments and policy-changing political campaigns.

I’m all for encouraging independent thought, pointed discussion and useful ‘argument’, but i stress the ‘usefulness’ requirement.

My main point is that there is a constant air of mutual disdain between media sectors which adds nothing to the intellectual or informational-distributive discourse. Sniping and sarcastic back-biting, whilst amusing, does little to aid the development of burgeoning markets or communications tools such as blogging.