"teetotaly moteetaly" (Babbling Dan on election night, 2004)
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.
"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!"
The author has a problem with this?...
Sure he does. He probably hates Bush, loved Arafat, and wishes the bad guys in Iraq weren't getting their asses put down for good. To him this was a "radical" statement. hahaha.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
MSM gnashing teeth ping
"I like them because none of them ever disagree with me on anything, and they allow me to sleep well at night knowing that my way of viewing things has gone completely unchallenged by inconvenient facts or logic."
No doubt - judging from the author's mentality.
Thank you for the Thanksgiving wishes. Hope you had a great day and enjoy the rest of your evening.
He's not in MY ratings at all. Never has been. Never will be. What power you get by finding that little knob or button that will turn off liberal TV!
Exactly HOW are right-winger bloggers "digging their own graves" by knocking off the mainstream press when it screws up? This is as illogical as complaining that every time a cop arrests a criminal, he's that much closer to putting himself out of work.
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!"
"Hoo-boy."
How exciting, I've made been quoted in the Toronto Star.
Now my Thanksgiving is quite complete. I think I got under her skin.
It's about the ideas, not the appearance.
Excellent work! Glad to finally determine which Freeper said the magic words that made the snarling Leftist go completely nonlinear! :o)
Keep on keepin' on, FRiend!
"teetotaly moteetaly" (Babbling Dan on election night, 2004)
I was just lurking tonight & happened upon this thread.
I remembered typing that yesterday as soon as I read it!
I must admit, the author sounds a bit unhinged.
Good night!
CD
The ADVERTISING is what pays for the content. They practically give the paper away when they offer subscriptions (buy Sunday and get the rest of the week for free PLUS the free delivery). Newspapers make money on higher circulation figures (and they have been caught cooking the books).
Socialism is best sold by lying to the public.
by Antonia Zerbisias
Published on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 by the Toronto Star
This Lurker doesn't get it
We aren't trying to run the MSM out on the rail .. We are trying to to get them to report honestly
And presenting FORGED Military documents is not the way to report the news
The real IRONY here is that so much of the Old Media is now reporting on (and apparently, lurking) on the blogs.
Herein is the beauty of "check and balance", the host (we the people) are killing off the parasites (MSM.) It is good medicine to do so; healthy for our republic. The propaganda machines are being effectively confronted.
Antonia... you got the host-parasite analogy backwards. (i.e., do your homework (errr... legwork) before running your over-inflated ego/mouth)
Exactly. Yet their reaction, like this one, is of a dinosaur gasping it's last breath and thrashing at anything close.
Prairie
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