U.K.: Boycotting the Olympics

In "newsblog" on The Guardian's website, Allegra Stratton engages in some light analysis of news on the Olympics that articles in traditional media do not. She draws attention to Hillary Clinton's comment that George W. Bush should follow Gordon Brown and "boycott" the Olympic games opening ceremony. However, Stratton alleges that Brown's absence is likely just another example of the Prime Minister "snubbing" an event. She links to another blog from earlier in the week on The Guardian's website, which also expresses confusion about whether or not Brown is attending the ceremony and if not, the motivation for his absence. She frames her comments in light of other notable absences: Ban Ki Moon's, because of a conflict, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's. Stratton writes, "The pity for Brown is that he's probably not boycotting the games. And he's so in awe of China's economic might, he won't even be able to bask in Clinton's warm words."

The reason traditional media would never make this connection is because her post offers little new information, and her analysis of Brown's reason for not attending is speculation, as far a reader of the blog can tell. She is simply getting more mileage out of a previous post by one of her colleagues on another blog. This leaves one wondering if the requirement that print media journalists contribute online, as well, is something of a waste of time. Their tendency is to use their blogs as means of commenting on their printed stories.