When Mainstream Media Blogging Goes Bad

My colleague Emily just dropped a few of us an e-mail with a link to this travel blog on *The Guardian’*s website:

Hello. I’m Max Gogarty. I’m 19 and live on top of a hill in north London.

At the minute, I’m working in a restaurant with a bunch of lovely, funny people; writing a play; writing bits for Skins;
spending any sort of money I earn on food and skinny jeans, and
drinking my way to a financially blighted two-month trip to India and
Thailand. Clichéd I know, but clichés are there for a reason.

The Guardian‘s commenteriat are less than delighted by his inclusion. Their responses range from “who’s son is max then?” through “He looks like a cliche, talks like a cliche, and is about to embark on a monumental cliche” to “Deleted by moderator”, which proves that what’s left is less unpleasant end of the reaction.

The editor who commissioned him eventually posts a response, and ‘fesses up to Max being the son of one of their travel writers. However, it does little to moderate the flow of invective, some of it very funny.

However, now I’ve got through the juvenile (but strangely cathartic) sniggering stage, it’s worth pointing out that this is another indication that blogs from mainstream publishers are held to vastly different standards than the rest of the blogosphere. If this was just Max’s blog on, say, Vox or WordPress.com, it would just be ignored. But somehow that endorsement of The Guardian puts it to another level, and people expect a higher quality of blogging. And that puts a little crack in the argument that  existing brand reputation doesn’t translate into the  blogging world…

Update:Travel Weekly takes up the tale…