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Posted on 11/25/2004 7:52:43 AM PST by HighWheeler
Hoo-boy. It's a hot time in the old blogtown.
The pajamahadeen are firing their virtual bullets into the cyber-air in celebration of CBS anchor Dan Rather's announcement on Tuesday that he was retiring as the top talking face of the network after 24 years.
"This has been a simply outstanding month," crowed a poster on http://www.freerepublic.com. "Bush won, Arafat died, we're kicking ass in Fallujah, and now this!"
Typically, the above-quoted "Freeper" didn't get that Rather may be down, but he certainly isn't out. When he steps down as front man for The CBS Evening News on March 9, he will stay on as correspondent for the still much-watched 60 Minutes, as well as perform other assignments.
So it was a bit premature to be celebrating the defeat of the veteran journalist who has inspired anti-liberal websites such as http://www.RatherBiased.com and http://www.BoycottCBS.com, not to mention Doonesbury's ridiculous foreign correspondent Roland Hedley Jr., an R.E.M. hit and "Rather-gate."
As comic Jon Stewart recently pointed out, last September's 60 Minutes II fiasco, which had Rather questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service with documents that could not be authenticated, was the only scandal of the election campaign to have merited a "-gate."
Which brings us to those pajamahadeen, the online brigades who claim credit for bringing those documents into question — and forcing Rather to apologize for his reporting.
The right-wing bloggers proudly dubbed themselves that — a play on muhajadeen, as in Muslim guerrilla fighters — when former CBS exec Jonathan Klein, in the wake of the scandal, complained to Fox News that "bloggers have no checks and balances.
"You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances (on network news) and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing."
By checks and balances, Klein meant the rigours of professional journalism — and not the opinionating of the blogosphere.
Ironically, bloggers mostly feed off the work of professional journalists who do the legwork. But, like parasites too stupid to realize they are killing off their hosts, the pajamahadeen don't get it every time they dig more dirt for our mass grave.
"Network news is dying and good riddence (sic)!" jubilated one of them yesterday.
It's true that journalism's checks and balances have been known to fail. When they do, news organizations crash and burn in spectacular fashion. But, much like the thousands of airplanes that land safely every day and don't make the news, major disasters are few and far between.
Still, the credibility of the corporate media continues to plummet.
In March, the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism published The State of the News Media 2004, which documents an increase in superficiality and sensationalism, the declining reach of newspapers and network newscasts, cutbacks in newsroom resources and, most significantly, rising public distrust and disdain for our reportage.
Then, in June, the Canadian Media Research Consortium, a national project led by three University-based organizations to promote research on the media, (http://www.cmrcccrm.ca) came out with its Report Card On Canadian News Media. While it showed that Canadians are significantly more positive about our news sources than Americans are, citizens here believe that "powerful people or organizations" have too much influence on the media agenda.
One thing is clear from both studies: The shift from mainstream media to alternate sources such as the ethnic press, cable networks and the Internet, are threatening the future of the solid, stolid mainstream journalism.
And we don't know how to deal with it. Recently, for example, the news came from the U.K. that staid old papers are going tabloid, while the Washington Post will lighten up — all to attract elusive younger readers.
As for the newscasts of the type that Rather hosts, well, one look at the commercials for arthritis pills will tell you plenty about their demographics.
Paradoxically, young people are crowding into journalism schools, many of them in search of network TV stardom.
Still, the pajamahadeen are waging war on the mainstream media.
That includes the paper you're reading, even if you're not reading it on paper, since it is the actually selling of this paper which pays for the content you may now be reading gratis.
By the end of today, who knows how many bloggers will have had at this column? Many of them often shoot me down — and some do a pretty good job. (See letitbleed.blogs.com)
But, just like trigger happy celebrants in the Middle East, who have yet to figure out that what goes up must come down, they can't see that, by firing up at us, they will also kill themselves.
Ahhh. They must mean the "legwork" of "journalists" such as Jayson Blair, and of course, Dan Rather (Sorry, forgot the scare quotes on Dan's name...)
WE know just how HIGH their standards are! (ROLLS EYES) /SARCASM MODE OFF/
EXCELLENT RIPOSTE!
I love it! Great hints to her! Nice job. See, your post is why I like to come to Free Republic!
'nuff said.
Their new slogan, "Hurry and Read Us While We're Still Around"
Ah-ha, they're predicting out demise, that's a sure sign we're on the ascendancy.
Actually, dear girl, we wouldn't shift away from MSM if your reporting weren't so biased. That's the whole point. We have to go elsewhere for balance. Which may not be the worst thing that could happen to any of us, the MSM, bloggers, Netizens. It forces us all to do our homework. It's a good thing.
The LIBERAL bar scene in Star Wars.
I can name a dozen bloggers. The cable news channels frequently have bloggers as guests.
Who's every heard of Antonia?
You make a great point. Also, one is encouraged to attempt to completely read and comprehend the points that are being made by a poster. As a result, we have a good grasp on the issue. Often, this forces us to read completely and to the end a piece that we might have otherwise stopped reading after the first paragraph.
People here are great, but to the chagrin of anyone who fails to read and understand before posting, they are quick to point out and poke holes in your treasured opinion or analysis.
It makes for a much more free flowing exchange of ideas which do, on occasion, ignite tempers and passions. I'll bet the only time you see that kind of free, uninihibited exchange occurring in the NY Times building is when an employee (like Jayson Blair) is being escorted off the premises by security. And even then, all the free, uninhibited exchange was coming out of his mouth.
Sometimes bloggers ARE "checks and balances" when needed.
You brought it on yourself. Your lies, distortions and omissions over the years have brought us to where you are simply... irrelevant.
I do, I do! Obeisant Zairians wrote it!
Wrong you arrogant fool.
So you do the legwork do you? HAH! The point was Rather didn't do the legwork, it was all a fraud to bring down the President. All you leftist "Journalists" do is repeat the DNC talking points and call it hard news.
He doesn't get it, Those aren't graves, they're
pajamahadeen Foxholes cause we are in a war with the MSM
"Dig you B*stards, Dig! Your cyberlives depend on it!"
The shovel and mouse are your friends!
These people don't even know we have figured out their
pattern and have them in our cyber crosshairs.
60 Minutes deliberately and repeatedly used falsified information in order to deceive and manipulate its audience. You'd have to be a bonghead to believe anything they say now.
The shovel and mouse are your friends!
Don't you mean "moose und squirel"?
Anyone seen "Fearless Leader"?
Word's out by noon that Dan is roadkill and yet he's still #3 in that night's ratings...
Hertz: We're #1
Avis: We're #2 We Try Harder
CBS: We're #3 We LIE Harder
We have yet another advantage. On any FreeRepublic thread, there is at least one genuine expert on the subject -- often more. A given FReeper will invariably know more about the subject at hand -- be it rocket science or plumbing, medicine or metaphysics -- than the journalist.
As such, we can spot his errors, counter his spin and correct his mistakes...and quickly discern the real meaning (if any).
There is no substitute for real knowledge, when set against a facile craft (often practiced with incredible sloppiness).
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