Posted on 12/31/2005 6:38:42 AM PST by Loyal Buckeye
Of all the stories leading Americas annual greatest-hits list, the one that subsumes the rest is the evolution of information in the Age of Blogging.
Not since the birth of the printing press have our lives been so dramatically affected by the way we create and consume information.
What is wonderful and miraculous about the Internet needs little elaboration. We all marvel at the ease with which we can access information, whether reading government documents previously available only to a few, or tracking down old friends and new enemies.
It is this latter our new enemies that interests me most. I dont mean al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden, but the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility: the angry offspring of narcissisms quickie marriage to instant gratification.
Theres something frankly creepy about the explosion we now call the blogosphere the "electroniverse" where recently wired squatters set up new camps each day. As I write, the number of blogs (Web logs) and bloggers (those who blog) is estimated in the tens of millions worldwide.
Although Ive been a blog fan since the beginning, and have written favorably about the value added to journalism and public knowledge thanks to the new "citizen journalist," Im also wary of power untempered by restraint and accountability.
Say what you will about the mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.
That a Jayson Blair of The New York Times surfaces now and then as a plagiarist or a fabricator ultimately is testament to the high standards tens of thousands of others strive to uphold each day without recognition. Blair is infamous, but also gone.
Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow. Some bloggers do their own reporting, but most rely on mainstream reporters to do the heavy lifting. Some bloggers also offer superb commentary, but most buzz and blurt like caffeinated adolescents.
Even so, they hold the same megaphone as the adults and enjoy perceived credibility owing to membership in the larger world of blog grown-ups. These effete and often clever baby "bloggies" are rich in time and toys, but bereft of adult supervision.
Spoiled and undisciplined, they have seized the stage, a privilege granted not by years in the trenches, but by virtue of a three-pronged plug and the miracle of WiFi. They play tag team with hyperlinks ("Ill say youre important if youll say Im important") and shriek "Gotcha!" when they catch some weary wage earner in a mistake or oversight. Plenty smart but lacking in wisdom, they possess the power of a forum, but neither the maturity nor humility that years of experience impose.
Each time I wander into blogdom, Im reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Goldings Lord of the Flies. Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.
What Golding demonstrated and what were witnessing as the blogospheres offspring multiply is that people tend to abuse power when it is unearned and will bring down others to enhance themselves. Likewise, many bloggers seek the destruction of others for their own self-aggrandizement. When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Goldings children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.
Schadenfreude pleasure in others misfortunes has become the new barbarity on an island called Blog. When someone trips, whether Dan Rather or Judith Miller, bloggers are slavering for a public flogging. Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim.
I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and journalists who also happen to blog. But we should beware and resist the rest of the egogratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.
We cant silence them, but for civilizations sake and the integrity of information by which we all live or die, we can and should ignore them.
We are bloggers, hear us roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And we know too much to go back an' pretend
'cause we've heard it all before
And we've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep us down again
CHORUS
Oh yes we am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, we've paid the price
But look how much we gained
If we have to, we can do anything
We are strong (strong)
We are invincible (invincible)
We are bloggers
I thought that she had more sense than to write something so inane.
"Stupid slut whore"
That really improves our credibility!!
I thought only the liberals resorted to gutter name calling when they realize they lost the debate... Please, let's not start playing by their rules...
I hope you're wearing your flame-retardant suit. Many on this forum scream that the 1st Amendment is all the certification one needs to print treason. I, like you, am not among them.
Get over it, Mz. Parker.
And FR is not a "blog". It's a forum.
And get that STUPID SMIRK off your face.
We all marvel at the ease with which we can access information, whether reading government documents previously available only to a few, or tracking down old friends and new enemies.
It is this latter our new enemies that interests me most. I dont mean al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden, but the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility: the angry offspring of narcissisms quickie marriage to instant gratification.
'Bereft of adult supervion', huh. And the old media wonders why their readership is leaving in droves. That 'adult supervision' always seems to bring it's biases to the table, and vociferous protestations to the contrary may be safely ignored.
If one wants left-wing spin- there's no need to pay money for it.
Say what you will about the mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.
'Getting it right' and 'better serving its communities', judging by the end product, usually seems to consist of attacking worthwhile things that Americans cherish, and parroting Democratic Party talking points. Take almost any article concerning any hot-button political issue- and it will be full of half-truths, bad research and Lefty spin. Especially egregious examples of this are any article having to do with firearms.
One needs only some critical thinking skills and the ability to do some verification homework. On this one forum alone- it isn't unusual that we'll have a poster or two who can look out the window and see whatever newsworthy event is taking place, and report their observations. Since the poster/correspondant is someone that we probably already know, we can make an informed assessment of the validity of the report.
Jayson Blair wasn't the problem- he was a symptom. You old media people -with your demonstrated arrogance- have dropped the ball. The days of the greats, the Edward R. Murrows' and Ernie Pyles, who were Americans first and Journalists second, are long gone. You want to 'better serve your communities'?
-Dump the social engineering. It isn't your job. Your job is to report news. Do that.
-Getting it right' means, well, actually getting it right. Do the homework.
-Opinion belongs on the op /ed page- not subtly woven into the piece. This may surprise you people, but when your photographer goes to a press conference and takes five hundred pictures of George Bush with an autowinder, and you pore over the contact sheets looking for the one where he has a stupid look on his face because he is about to sneeze and you run that picture, you make a political statement. We 'unsupervised children' aren't so stupid that it isn't obvious to us. And you bleat about how impartial you are.
-In any particular area of expertise, a segment of your readership will know a lot more than you do. Write as if you were actually accountable for the accuracy of the product.
People who constantly extoll the worth of the free flow of information, carping and complaining that the flow of information now bypasses their 'gatekeeper' role. It's 'free-er' now. What's wrong with that?
This entire post of yours is deep and poetic. Well done!
We live in marvelous times. I'm of the opinion that the Internet is the best thing to happen to our freedom of expression since the invention of the printing press. It's just a whole lot faster.
I am none of the listed. Please ignore any post I might make or opinion I might hold.
Being just a work-a-day Johnnie, I am not fit to live.
Typical liberal - if you haven't spent 10 years in grad school, you must be an absolute moron...
LOL LOL!!1!!1! j00 5ux0rrs!1! A11 teh crEd. R belong t0 uS!!1!1! Bwahahahahaha!
Shes "concerned" because blogs have exposed the Emperors nudity..
Please accept my apologies for someone living in Ohio who's a might too big for her britches.
What's wrong Kathleen, you feeling the pressure of competition from people smarter than you? When was the information provided by you MSM types ever based on integrity. Bloggers exist to fill the gap you MSMers have created in your continuing effort to only print the news that fits your view of the world. A view many people don't share.
And, self-correcting. Print something erroneous on FreeRepublic and no matter how good it sounds to conservatives, it will eventually be challenged. Don't hold your breath waiting for the MSM to correct their errors.
Your #57 and #58- well said.
Smokers often don't think they smell of cigarettes. Liberal journalists think that they don't smell of political slant.
Because their views seem reasonable to them, that they are 'moderate' or in the 'middle of the road' and must appear to be so to any other thinking person. 'Thinking persons' of course, are always other Liberals.
There is an apparent blindness to one's own biases and shortcomings in the trade.
Say what you will about the mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how toimprove its productget Bush,police its members and better serve its communitiesand promote world wide socialism at the expense of the United Sates. Newspapers are filled with demented communisticcarpal-tunneledwretches,overworkedunder worked andunderpaidoverpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to gettingit rightBush.
there ya go Kathy.
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