'Welsh Bloggers need to step up to the plate' - After you Matt!

'Welsh Bloggers need to step up to the plate' – After you Matt!

Quite ironic that Matt Withers in the latest Welsh Bloggers contribution lambasts Welsh bloggers for not scrutinising WAG policy or holding the Government to account or exposing the flaws in the LCO process, because neither does he or his colleagues, if you read Matt’s blog he finds National Assembly Business tedious as we have seen in his many reports on First Minister’s Questions (FMQ’s) and in his weekly gossip filled Spin Doctor newspaper column, no wonder he wants a Welsh Guido Fawkes blog.

Unlike the majority of bloggers Matt is paid to cover welsh politics for the Wales on Sunday and like the Western Mail neither reports on the Assembly Committee’s when they take evidence or cover questions to Assembly Ministers, other than Rhodri Morgan or Opposition debates in the Chamber, all part of the democratic process and as much a part of what the National Assembly does as FMQ’s, something that both BBC Wales AM.PM and ITV Wales Sharp End programmes do cover so it’s not an impossible task.

It’s easy to take pot shots at the Welsh media as he says and I'm guilty of it, but why should Welsh bloggers make up for the holes in political reporting that journalists and researchers are paid to do and often don't. They are as guilty of quoting from AM’s blogs and Twitters for easy stories like bloggers with the comment instead of reporting the political news that only those in Cardiff Bay have access to and are often not published for fear of reprisals such as the Welsh Labour’s financial troubles.

Its seems the cosy world between Welsh politicians and the Welsh media needs to be challenged and opened up to some wider scrutiny itself,so that welsh bloggers could get their hands on some of the political stories and start making names for themselves like Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes as Matt seems to want.

(This post first appeared on A Change Of Personnel blog on 10/6/09)

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