The year of the blogs (Free Republic mentioned)

World Net Daily ^ | December 22, 2004 | Hugh Hewitt

[AmericanMade1776]

So...true....Great Leadership with the Robinsons.

[unspun]

So, what's a coast watcher?

[visitor]

1776 - me too, and as a cub scout end of WW-II was a sky watcher, also a coast watcher at the beginning with my dad, then again as a naval aviator during the '60s, and now a PROUD FREEPER SINCE '98 :^)...rto

[GOPJ]

Thanks. Great comment :

"...we are the early warning system... Dedicated, passionate... intelligent and experienced. Think I'll get my ANZAC hat and khaki shorts and practice my Morse.

[Fiddlstix]

One more time for those who don't understand........
FR is a forum.
(Not a blog)

[AVNevis]

You are on a kind of one. This is really a fast paced forum, but from my experience FR has breaking news faster than anyone on the wed usually by virtue of having so many members. The networks may have large news staffs, but that doesn't compare to the 150,000(I think) "journalists" on the "staff" here at Free Republic.

[expatguy]

Vanities?

I would beg to differ a bit. I don't see why a blog can't also be considered a news source.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[CedarDave]

"blog" is shortened from "weblog", IIRC.

[floriduh voter]

Okay, I don't know about the hair but, this is a real Christmas album. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO FREEPERS from floriduh voter & in absentia, Clay Aiken

[floriduh voter]

Yes, I know that now. Pls see my last.

[McGavin999]

Now the next move is to convince corporate America that they are wasting their ad dollars (and the dollars of their stockholders) by advertising in this ancient and largely ignored medium. As long as the MSM is propped up by a corporate America the medium is sworn to destroy, they will continue whether they have the following or not.

The ad agencies in NYC are part of the media and until those who pen the advertising budgets in large corporations figure it out, their money will still go toward financing their own destruction.

[proudofthesouth]

If I were 25 years younger, I would have the biggest crush on him.

[floriduh voter]

Yes, Clay's sweet. There are Clay Aiken jokes too, but if you are a public figure nowadays, you are fair game. His voice is something else and he can talk to an audience which isn't the easiest thing to learn to do.

[Caipirabob]

Let's face it, FR just wouldn't be the same without all the Robinson's!

And just think of what would happen to us!

FReeper Withdrawal DT's.....*shiver*

When it comes down to it, the Robinson are performing a dual public service.

[Lauren BaRecall]

Merry Christmas to you, too!

Merry Christmas, Clay!

[carumba]

Peter Jennings? I thought it was Dan Blather.

[AmericanMade1776]

"Powerline earned its honor by launching the blog swarm that quickly surrounded and destroyed Dan Rather's and CBS' reputation for integrity in reporting after "60 Minutes" ran with a story on George W. Bush's Air National Guard service built not only on forgeries, but bad forgeries at that."

From the article, but not posted in excerpt...as I wanted to post the part concerning Free Republic.

[GretchenM]

blog is a contraction of " web log" (where news or opinions are posted and then others can post their comments).

It's something like Free Republic, which is technically a bulletin board for news.

Check out Powerline for an example.

[x]

A blog or a weblog is like an online diary or journal. A person can type their reflections or musings every day and, thanks to an Internet host, their entries will show up on a web site for everyone to read. The most famous blog is still probably AndrewSullivan.com, though there are plenty of others by now.

It's amazing that we now have a network of webloggers to act as an alternative or check on the established media. Twenty or thirty years ago people didn't have the option of "self-publishing" their ideas on the scale they can today.

Bloggers read and cite each other, so there's a snowball or chain reaction effect. What one blogger (or poster to a bulletin board) finds out one day is all over the Internet tomorrow, and eventually it's hard for the mainstream media to ignore it. Another trend is towards group blogging, on the theory that two or three heads can be better than one.

[SuziQ]

It wasn't until a few years ago, when I started paying closer attention to the history of WWII, that I realized why the Coast Watchers in all the old war movies were Australian. I never could figure out why they'd be that interested in what the Japanese were doing, until I looked at a Globe and realized just how close Australia was to Indonesia, and how far South the Japanese had gone before being slowed down by the battle of Midway and other Pacific battles.