Posted on 03/04/2005 3:42:29 PM PST by sully777
NEW YORK When Ted Rall wrote a column Tuesday criticizing conservative blogs, it was no surprise that conservative bloggers would respond.
One of them, Edward Morrissey, wrote that Rall's "problem is that he expected bloggers to exist only to agree with his radical beliefs. Of course, that's Rall's idea of free speech."
Rall had revealed that, given the need to monitor the mainstream media, he was initially thrilled by the explosion of blogs. "Once you spend some time surfing this ocean of likeminded righties, however, you realize the awful truth: the 'populist' blogosphere is cowing the mainstream media even further into submission to the powers that be."
The Universal Press Syndicate columnist, whose weekly feature has 40 clients, added: "At a time when simply having a conservative Democrat spar with a conservative Republican is enough to earn the tag 'fair and balanced,' the fact is that the political blogs are dominated by the hard right. Such a development might have served as a laudable counterbalance during the 1930s, a period of liberal political hegemony. But when talk radio, cable television news, and all three branches of the federal and most state governments are under the control of the right, the blogger wolf pack merely serves to further ossify a dangerously out of whack ideological imbalance. Moreover, conservative blogs mirror their mainstream counterparts by applying a far angrier and more violent tone than that of their liberal foes."
Rall -- who also does editorial cartoons for 150 clients via Universal -- cited three examples of threatening language used by Republican bloggers, including one who wrote: "When I flush the toilet, it isn't considered violence, is it? So killing Ted Rall should be no different."
Among the bloggers responding to Rall's blog piece was Morrissey of Captain's Quarters. He wrote: "What qualifications does Rall have to write opinion columns for Universal Press Syndicate? He draws cartoons -- badly -- and expresses opinions similarly. I don't pay much attention to him as a rule, as he generally makes almost no sense whatsoever, and [his Tuesday] column is a perfect example."
Writing in her blog after Rall's Tuesday piece, Creators Syndicate columnist Michelle Malkin called the Universal commentator a "liberal bigot," and added: "Keep stepping in it, Ted. It's the only (mildly) funny thing you do."
Rall told E&P in a phone interview that some of the reaction to his column was "more restrained than usual." He attributed this to his column mentioning the "far angrier and more violent tone" of conservative bloggers. So, Rall said, they didn't want to prove his point by getting too nasty.
The columnist/cartoonist acknowledged that some bloggers have expertise in what they discuss, but many don't. And he wondered how many bloggers are "fake independent voices" actually being funded by the right -- or, in some cases, the left.
"I'm a fierce critic of the mainstream media, but the right-wing blogs are not an improvement," he added. "Right-wing bloggers are trying to destroy the mainstream media, but they don't have a plan for the occupation."
Rall said mainstream journalists -- while often wrong or biased -- do reporting and sometimes take risks before writing stories. "A 48-year-old doing a blog in the basement of his parents' house? That's fine. That's the First Amendment," he told E&P. "But it ain't journalism."
David Astor ( dastor@editorandpublisher.com ) is a senior editor at E&P
Ted has a pretty high opinion of himself, huh? In his mind it's Ted against the world. A Walter Mitty for the 21st Century?
When someone like Trent Lott says something stupid the left has "groups" they can rally to hound him out of office. Well, the Bloggers are our "groups", and they do seem to be buying us some leverage we didn't have before so I say more power to them.
Ted's a bit confused, I'm afraid. He has the current batch of left-wing megaphones in MSM confused with journalists. Much of the so-called "right-wing" anger at the media comes down to the fact that the truth - the REAL, OBJECTIVE TRUTH - has been obscured, lied about, subverted, and perverted intentionally by the MSM. In my book, not reporting a story because it doesn't fit your views is an intentional subversion of the truth, because you have imposed your viewpoint on others in the name of "journalism".
Feh.
Ted's journalist firends suredly include Eason Jordan, who infamously admitted that CNN continually covered up Iraqi atrocities under Saddam in order to keep their "access" - and then decried the war in Iraq as being excessively punishing to the very people formerly being shredded by the network's favorite malevolent despot.
Double feh.
Turd Ball's articles are as horrible as his cartoons.
I hope you don't mind, but I saved that. My dad in Korea will love it. The Kool Aid, peace sign and no-guns icons are great ;- )
Congressman Billybob
Boy he really is stupid. the media is about money. when they start going broke, they will stop the propaganda service they provide now. If they want to die an ugly death so be it. The vacumn will be filled. Rall is a pathetic leftie that can't think past his own nose.
Bingo! This guy whines about "the powers that be" in journalism - but mass-market journalism is the business of cheap talk about institutions which have responsibilities and a bottom line.Any industry finds it convenient to limit competition among themselves, and mass-market journalism is in now way an exception to that rule. Except that whereas other industries have the threat of anti-trust enforcement, journalism has First Amendment protection which allows it to feel free to conspire in plain sight. Big Journalism coheres in the principle that there is no competition within it over objectivity. Anyone who questions the objectivity of a journalist is aggressively condemned as "not objective, not a journalist."
As a matter of fact, Rall looks like he was from East Germany.
I have to wonder about guys whose taglines are inspired by "one eyed hooker" jokes...
How does he know their party affiliation??
If I came up with that toilet line, I would proud. I'm considering making it my tagline.
I don't like to advocate violence but it's always worked for me.
Most TV news services don't make any money. They are supported by the shows that do and siphon off the funds that they need, like the parasites that they are.
Isn't Rall still due a midnight visit by a squad of Army Rangers?
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LOL!
When a toilet gets all full up of sh!t, it can be flushed.
Get the man a crying towel.
Don't kid yourself Rall. After we finish dispatching the MSM, we will institute honest, truthful reporting. Including the news story of one cartoonist that shall be unemployed in the near future.
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