John / Billybob
Hmm, "pajama brigade" versus "kneepad brigade" skirmish shaping up...?? ;-)
But it was on a Friday (how Clintonesque), and he would have to wait a week for the next Friday..
Well done!
Good shot!
Perhaps a new department is in order at the Columbia School of Journalism, that of Blog Studies. You could be this new depatment's head Billybob. Just my two cents...JFK
Thanks for posting this!
You might see it this way.. but I don't. Perhaps some editor of some MSM will pick up on something here.. but frankly. This source is better and news consumers can find blogs and bloggers that they trust.
Its my understanding that Free Republic has something on the order of 170,000 viewers now. Not network news level yet.. but I wonder what the numbers for the whole blogosphere are now. What if you add Drudge?
I have often seen Hannity, Rush or Drudge as the cross over point for the conservative voices in the Blogosphere. Once this crossover occurs, the mentions happen, then the MSM starts working the story.
I feel this is the difference with the Eason Jordon story. It never crossed over until it blew up. The natural progression would have been to cross over and then blow into the MSM.. but something told CNN that this was going to get ugly.. so they cut their losses early once the handwriting was on the wall.
I guess to get back to the point, why do you talk about being a stringer for the MSM? Trying to get their attention? You are a whole lot more interesting then that. If they are paying attention its because this is where the news gets tumbled and digested right now because the blogosphere is not normally a primary source medium. It is an analysis medium. But with Michelle Malkin and many of the "power" bloggers this is changing. Captain Ed or The guys at Powerline, jim geraghty are doing primary source work, interviewing people and finding leads and doing real reporting. We might have lost a Gannon, such as he was, but I fully expect one or two serious bloggers to join the Whitehouse press corps in the next month or two.
Your message to Columbia needs to be more along the line of ...
Lead, Follow or get the heck out of the way.
News is no longer a one-way process - we report, you eat. Sam Smith at Progressive Review said it well years ago - reporters tried dipping their toes into the waters of the internet until the aquatic life snapped back. Reporters don't like that. They don't like feedback. They like their articles and their opinions to be carved into newsprint, with hundreds of thousands of copies delivered to the consumer, with maybe one or two letters to the editor coming back that hardly anyone reads anyway.
But things are different now. It used to be that all those who disagreed with the facts and/or the opinions expressed in a given newspaper had to gnash their teeth alone. But no longer. Now they can reach out through the internet. Share research. Dissect the column or the article. And make life absolutely miserable for the author.
Before Easongate, the MSM still viewed the blogsphere as an annoyance. Yeah, sure, we bit Rather in the ass. But he screwed up so bad that he was an easy target.
But there was a sea change this week. It used to be that the rabble out here in 'Netland had to beg and cajole the MSM to dip down and cover a story we were concerned about. If a tree fell in the blogsphere and the MSM didn't notice, well, it didn't make a sound. But a tree fell in the blogsphere this week... and it crunched a bigshot. And that tends to make all other bigshots, no matter what their political views may be, sit up and take notice. And start looking around for any widowmakers hanging over their heads.
Which is why we saw media sphincters tighten across the land. Fox News. The Wall Street Journal. Folks who normally, one would think, would be glad to see a cad like Eason Jordan finally called on the carpet. But there was a problem. It wasn't Fox News or the Wall Street Journal that called him out. It was the rabble. And suddenly, every MSM journalist woke up in a cold sweat and realized that they had lost control of the process. It now belongs to the democracy of the mob, and to the raw ability of ANYONE who is capable to make an argument and win in the marketplace of ideas.
As for me, I will no longer watch Fox News Sunday for validation of the work I do all week to present my views in the outside chance that Brit or some other panelist will cover my views with a glancing commentary. As of February 13th, 2005, we are now on equal footing with the MSM when it comes to setting the agenda. And the news will never be the same again.
Damn, you're good!
CJR, watching the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel...not recognizing the approaching headlight shining at them.
Is there a play book in use here? Just asking.
I get the sense they aren't just ignorant of what the bloggers are all about .. they appear to be ignoring us in the hopes we are just a fad and will disappear into the night. Calling us names is a psychological way of demeaning us as a competitor .. and helps them to pretend we are not important enough to deal with.
If I make the slightest factual error in a blog post, I can count on the readers to point it out PRONTO. This is why blogging can be more accurate than traditional journalism which relies on "editors" to catch the mistakes of reporters. And unlike traditional journalism, I have a ready means to correct errors almost instantaneously. How can an ordinary beat reporter correct even errors of which she or he later becomes aware? This is a real advantage of this media over that of traditional journalism that has nothing to do with the skill, good faith or biases of journalists. They do not have ready access to the knowledge of their readers and they cannot readily correct any errors they make.
I watched a couple of the cable news shows last night. It seems clear that the strategery of the MSM and its allies like Bob Beckel (one of the guests) is to smear ALL bloggers as reckless and irresponsible barbarians at the gates of the Holy Temple of Professional Journalism.
As Fred Friendly said many times, though, journalism is NOT a profession. You don't need a license; there aren't any professional standards; you can't be barred from practicing it. Hence, this demand for "credentials" and "standards" is preposterous -- journalism is about finding the TRUTH. Anyone who can write coherently and can find a truthful newsworthy story can enter at any time.
It galls the graduates of the Columbia School of Journalism that Freepers cried out that the Emperor (Dan Rather) was naked. Having lost any interest in the TRUTH and become a tool at the service of the legacy political culture, they are vulnerable to anyone who does tell the truth. Their only option is the current smear campaign, which, as I said, is hilarious.
I couldn't stop laughing last night hearing MSM defenders scream about how the barbarian bloggers are only interested in smearing people and getting folks fired from their jobs!! What have THEY been doing since 1973? The WATERGATE generation upset about attacks on public figures?? They are being hoisted on their own petard.
Somewhere, Dick Nixon is laughing his ass off.
Taxman Bravo Zulu! my FRiend!
Thank you for writing for us all, CBB.
I must point out that for CJR to come to grips with the internet methodology is going to take the a lot longer than they realize. Some of us have been active in the development of this Media for over ten years - I was involved in the "gopher" days long before FR about 1991 or so. This media has evolved under the radar for a very long time, and it is not new. Many of us are very experienced in separating the wheat from the chaff and that is why we so seldom are misled. The CJR reporters and the other Old Media simply don't have the background to comprehend what has been going on and why and how we are now effective.
It is going to be a long time before they do, I think, and by that time our numbers will have grown even greater and more formidable. This revolution is not going to be easily suppressed, despite the things they still are wont to believe.
Marker ping
You suggest to me that I should read the posts on Vodka Pundit is misplaced. I read hundreds of posts every day from the "tin foil hats" on both the left and the right. I have never had the slightest doubt that such people exist, and file their screeds on the Internet.Brilliantly put. It is easy to take a commenter from any blog (right or left) and illogically infer that the whole lot are raving lunatics. I am amazed day after day by the coherence and intelligent thought I read on blogs.But you make the mistake of confusing the players for the fans.
I think you were too kind to him. Perhaps it's true that there are a couple of hundred influential bloggers and blog-site managers, and perhaps it's true that some of the comments on a typical thread may be inane. But as a rule, especially here in FR, a substantial number of the replies are intelligent and constructive.
And even "Pass the popcorn" doesn't necessarily indicate that the poster is a moron. Maybe he just doesn't feel like making a keen analytical statement at that precise moment. Maybe he's just in the mood to sit back and enjoy the action. Why not?
Some of the most important internet campaigns started within the threads, not at the top, Buckhead being the best known instance. And if someone posts something fallacious, stupid, or unproved, the responses are usually quick to point that out. The cooperative process is important, and that extends far beyond a couple of hundred people.
That's also true at the other end. An influential blog posts the evidence that Dan Rather promoted forged documents on 60 minutes. That wouldn't have done the trick if it hadn't quickly spread to 10,000 other blogs, not to speak of people who understood the significance emailing alerts to their lists (which is quite a different matter from the knee-jerk forwarding of propaganda that too often characterizes email campaigns on the left).