Posted on 09/15/2004 6:41:48 AM PDT by Hank All-American
Dan Rather, Professional Journalist, and CBS News, Professional News Network, want us to keep believing that they are the ordained purveyors of truth. They are the mature and responsible mavens of media ethics. They are the information gatekeepers with unparalleled judgment, dedicated to the high principles of The Craft of Journalism, unwavering in their crusade for the public interest.
As the saying goes in the blogosphere: Bwah-hah-hah.
With a click of the mouse and easy-to-use Web log software, Internet-savvy citizens across America and around the world are relentlessly unmasking the frauds of snob journalism as never before. The wall between the self-anointed press protectorate and the unwashed masses has crumbled.
Rather and The Suits face crushing evidence that CBS relied on bogus military documents in a recent "60 Minutes II" hit piece challenging President Bush's National Guard service. Questions about the documents' authenticity were first raised last week on the indispensible conservative Internet forum, FreeRepublic.com, then amplified and supplemented by the intrepid independent bloggers of Powerline, Little Green Footballs, INDC Journal and Allahpundit.
Rather and his geriatric empire are combating these powerfully persuasive blogs with anemic smears and sneers. And they are losing so very, very badly that they can't keep on top of their own spin.
Rather recklessly suggests that the bloggers who broke the story are disciplined "partisan political operatives," presumably affiliated with the Bush campaign and/or Republican National Convention. Former CBS news executive Jonathan Klein, on the other hand, suggests that the bloggers are loose cannons and amateur yahoos. The blogger, Klein told Fox News, is a "guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing" without acceptable journalistic credentials or a genuine commitment to "checks and balances."
It's no surprise, of course, that the conspiratorial, central-planning mindset of the mainstream media kingpins conjures up a top-down plot where there is none and where none could ever be orchestrated even if the Bush White House wanted one. Bloggers take orders from no one. But with that irresistible platter of publishing freedom comes a tall glass of responsibility. For serious blogging pundits and news-gatherers and discussion board operators, cyber-cred is everything. Mainstream media anthropologists often attach the adjective "free-wheeling" to the blogger culture -- ignoring the flip side of the brutally quick-fixing and 24/7 fact-checking nature of the medium.
What is amazing is that Rather would shamelessly traffic in such paranoid nonsense against conservative-leaning bloggers, without a shred of substantiation, in the middle of his own disastrous journalistic hurricane -- and on the heels of CNN's recent disclosure that two of its most prominent talk show co-hosts, Paul Begala and James Carville, have been hired as official consultants to the Kerry presidential campaign but will remain in their current positions at the network.
About these proven Democratic "partisan political operatives," Rather has made no comment on CBS.
As for Klein, his pajama put-down will go down in media history as the death cry of snob journalism.
With amusement, I have watched my colleagues in the Old Media fight every democratizing and choice-enhancing trend during the dozen years I've spent in the information business. They scoffed at Rush Limbaugh as a flash in the pan (and have searched in vain for a commercially viable liberal counterpart for the last 15 years). They sneered at The Drudge Report (then bookmarked his site for hourly reading). They sniped at Fox News (then ripped off every one of Roger Ailes' innovations). They laughed at Regnery Publishing (then snatched up its editors and formed New York knock-offs). They mocked the insurgent New York Post (as their own circulation figures and ad sales tanked). And now, in final desperation, they trash the blogging revolution as an irresponsible pajama party for unprofessional hobbyists (even as they launch their own corporate-scrubbed versions to exhibit their "edginess").
Faced with an unstoppable onslaught of competitive traffic, Dan Rather and the great pretenders in Trusted Journalism have only one choice for survival: Yield.
Yep, September 8th was the cyber-version of Bastille Day - when we finally and completely breached the walls of a major media outlet.
I do love me some Michelle Malkin...
If you're reading this, Ms. Malkin: THANK YOU for the mutual esteem.
And thank you, for not referring to FR as a Blogsite, which we assuredly are NOT.
LOL!
Thanks Michelle!
Thanks, Michelle. We love you too.
Here is the national mass media (MSM) or "Old Media" for short, all high and mighty, drunk on their own elite power, telling the unwashed masses in flyover country what to think. (Don't anyone tell me otherwise. I know many of them personally, in New York City and elsewhere, and their every word and action REEKS of arrogance and entitlement).
They pride themselves on reporting great shifts in history, such as the decay of the Soviet Union (The falling Berlin Wall), preceded by perestroika and glasnost, about how powerful they are in uncovering scandal and bringing down the likes of President Nixon, and otherwise serving as a powerful spotlight on public inequities.
But the minute THEY are under the microscope, what do they do? They resort to the same entrenched and arrogant proclivities of the very ones in other places of power they so fervently criticize and attack.
Anything but take responsibility and RESIGN.
To hell with them. And on with the PAJAMA REVOLUTION.
I'm still waiting for Michelle to dump her hubby. I've already got my proposal ready.
By the way . . . I heard the Ann Coulter rules also applied to Michelle and Laura Ingraham now.
You know, I have given up on CBSNews a long time ago but with Rathergate in full throttle, I can't wait for 7 pm just to see rather squirm. Who knows, maybe his head will blow up from so much hubris.
They have no choice but to yield or lose out. Or they might try honesty and accuracy. Most of us used to turn to the media to learn. At least, I did. Before I had a computer, I began to become disillusioned, especially during Clinton's term. One night, while ironing, I was listening to Tom Brokaw, when he told such a stupid lie, that I changed the channel, turned the iron off, and went and bought my first computer.
Before bloggers, I learned more with the back and forths on Internet forums than I ever learned elsewhere (including college). I've seen short opinion pieces by major journalists being taken apart piece by piece and analzyed. We all have. And we all came to different opinions than most of the reporters. (They haven't cornered the market on intelligence, yet)!
We have the knack to separate opinion from fact. If we don't, other posters will call us on it for proof! Today's reporters cannot do that. When I read the front page, I want to read what's happening. Just the facts, please! Then, I go to the editorial page to read the opinions about the front page. Sometimes, according to what paper I am reading, the front page has as many opinions as the editorial page.
I seldom read a paper or magazine anymore because of the bias. Instead of reading that an SUV killed someone or a gun killed someone, I'm more interested in who was behind the wheel and the gun. But, those people are just asides to the reporters' real issues.
attractive, even in her justified anger......
Oh please! Someone tell me how I can get a tee-shirt made with that picture on it. Mrs PD
Excellent - as always - Linda!!! I love it!
A round of applause for the indespensible Michelle Malkin.
You're good, real good.
Has anybody in the “PAJAMAHIDEEN"* seen RatherGATE described as an Enron-style corporate corruption scandal?
* Pikamax
CB^)
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