Blogged Down (FreeRepublic mentioned)

The American Prospect ^ | 3/4/05 | Garance Franke-Ruta

[martin_fierro]

Ms. Hyphenate's idea of a "journalist":

[ko_kyi]

Their panic is delicious.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I am a political comedian, a political poet, and a general Maveric. I ain't no stinkin jernalist. I can't even spell it.

[Dog]

"The way I look at this,” says Daily Kos’ Gardner, “[Gannon] is just one more piece to a bigger puzzle that we’ve seen for the past couple months -- attempts by the Republican media complex not necessarily to fight the media but to become the media.”

Why does an episode of the cartoon Pinky and the Brain

come to mind.

[Jeff Blogworthy]

"Certainly there were some citizen-bloggers involved in the anti-Jordan effort."

You have to love that quote - as though being a conservative Republican means you are not actually a "citizen."

[SlowBoat407]

after a real reporter, from The Washington Post, confronted Steffen with the FreeRepublic postings.

If by "real reporter" you mean "skulking troll who started up the controversy all over again so he could create a story where there was none," well, okay.

[eyespysomething]

that he was not really a journalist at all

Lie. I'm tired of this lie. He reported news, he was a reporter/journalist. End of story. There's no magic degree to make someone a journalist. In fact, I think the term is used too loosely nowadays. Dan Rather? P-shaw!

[Red Badger]

...unlike traditional news outlets, right-wing blogs openly shill, fund raise, plot, and organize massive activist campaigns on behalf of partisan institutions and constituencies; they also increasingly provide cover for professional operatives to conduct traditional politics by other means -- including campaigning against the established media.

Left-wing blogs don't do these same things?...........hmmmmm?.......

[newgeezer]

Already posted two days ago.

[Red Badger]

Maybe the "citizen-bloggers" comment was a "Citizen-Kane" reference.......

[strategofr]

Great post. I focus on this paragraph:

"But success bred change. Along has come a new group of bloggers who aren’t mere “citizens” at all. On the left side, some of these became deeply enmeshed with political parties, “527s,” and campaign advocacy groups -- and are now a new generation of no-holds-barred partisans and major party tenderizers, the liberal equivalent of George W. Bush’s “Rangers” and “Pioneers.” On the right, a number of these bloggers were already political operatives or worked at long-standing movement institutions before taking up residence online. They are, at best, the intellectual heirs of L. Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center and Reed Irvine, who founded the ultraconservative, media-hounding nonprofit organization Accuracy In Media (AIM) in 1969 as part of the first generation of post–Barry Goldwater right-wing institutions. At worst, they're the protégés of conservative fund-raiser Richard Viguerie and dirty-tricks master Morton Blackwell, who has tutored conservative activists since 1965, most recently mocking John Kerry at the Republican national convention by distributing Band-Aids with purple hearts on them."

Interesting how the lies of the Left always show through. I rate this as top shelf propaganda: on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is an untutored lefty spouting stuff he picked up on the Internet and 10 is either an intelligent Lefty who himself does not realize he is a tool of the Left or KGB product. (Yes, I realize the KGB is officially shut down, replsced by the FSB and SVR, but I believe the KGB still operates, on an ad hoc basis, from the Kremlin).

I rate this piece an 8.

Note the implied parallel though. The 527s showed pictures on the web equating Bush to Hitler. Not only is this a falsehood, it is an utterly repugnant falsehood. Of course, the example is not cited as specifically as I do here, but that is the implication when they refer to 527s. These lying, degraded scum are referred to as the equivalent of Bush's Rangers and Pioneers.

The equivalent example for the Right is band aids with Purple Hearts. This refers to facts verified by many people, including vets who served with Kerry and the doctor who treated his wound.

Thanks much for the illuminating post.

[Mad Mammoth]

I love the smell of smoldering liberals in the morning, it smells like VICTORY!!! :)

[prairiebreeze]

Which brings us back to Jordan. He was brought down not by outraged citizen-bloggers but by a mix of GOP operatives and military conservatives.

Actually I believe a fellow named Eason Jordan was probably who brought down Eason Jordan. He could have produced the Davos tape and aired it for the world to see if his comments were so innocent. He didn't. Instead, he resigned himself, preemptively.

LaShawn Barber being mentioned doesn't surprise me at all either. Another conservative Christian black woman to make the Left's heads explode.

[bvw]

A failure of an attempt to create a narrative history that boxes in bloggers and web-empowered freedom lovers. That places them in "just so" neat political operative boxes for the sake of framing regulations and constraints upon them.

Unfortunatlely this essay is "just so" rancid, it is not a failure at all as an potent emetic. A nauseating read.

[marty60]

This is one of the most convuluted mind-numbing pieces of garbage I have ever attempted to read.

[foolscap]

ping

[CaptRon]

The Gannon scalping is different from the Jordan and Rather controversies in two very important ways. First, whereas the conservative bloggers were out to destroy journalists with distinguished careers who’d made serious missteps, the liberal bloggers on Gannon’s trail were seeking to expose an out-and-out fraud. Second, while some of the conservative bloggers going after Jordan and Rather were mistaken for regular citizens by the mainstream media, the liberal bloggers were very much out in the open

Puh-leeze.

[marty60]

Narrative history. Your assuming that there were FACTS in the article. it was a series of innuendo, assumptions based on a political biase and mindless BS. To make the assumption that anyone that holds the msm to account, or shines a spotlight on facts about a candidate. especially when the msm has decided to keep it under wraps. Then leap to the conclusion that everyone is some ultra-"right wing" republican operative makes the tin foil hat brigades look like pikers.

[OldFriend]

Sheesh, of all the things we've been called.....non citizen really hurts.