Posted on 11/25/2004 7:52:43 AM PST by HighWheeler
Hoo-boy. It's a hot time in the old blogtown.
The pajamahadeen are firing their virtual bullets into the cyber-air in celebration of CBS anchor Dan Rather's announcement on Tuesday that he was retiring as the top talking face of the network after 24 years.
"This has been a simply outstanding month," crowed a poster on http://www.freerepublic.com. "Bush won, Arafat died, we're kicking ass in Fallujah, and now this!"
Typically, the above-quoted "Freeper" didn't get that Rather may be down, but he certainly isn't out. When he steps down as front man for The CBS Evening News on March 9, he will stay on as correspondent for the still much-watched 60 Minutes, as well as perform other assignments.
So it was a bit premature to be celebrating the defeat of the veteran journalist who has inspired anti-liberal websites such as http://www.RatherBiased.com and http://www.BoycottCBS.com, not to mention Doonesbury's ridiculous foreign correspondent Roland Hedley Jr., an R.E.M. hit and "Rather-gate."
As comic Jon Stewart recently pointed out, last September's 60 Minutes II fiasco, which had Rather questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service with documents that could not be authenticated, was the only scandal of the election campaign to have merited a "-gate."
Which brings us to those pajamahadeen, the online brigades who claim credit for bringing those documents into question — and forcing Rather to apologize for his reporting.
The right-wing bloggers proudly dubbed themselves that — a play on muhajadeen, as in Muslim guerrilla fighters — when former CBS exec Jonathan Klein, in the wake of the scandal, complained to Fox News that "bloggers have no checks and balances.
"You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances (on network news) and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing."
By checks and balances, Klein meant the rigours of professional journalism — and not the opinionating of the blogosphere.
Ironically, bloggers mostly feed off the work of professional journalists who do the legwork. But, like parasites too stupid to realize they are killing off their hosts, the pajamahadeen don't get it every time they dig more dirt for our mass grave.
"Network news is dying and good riddence (sic)!" jubilated one of them yesterday.
It's true that journalism's checks and balances have been known to fail. When they do, news organizations crash and burn in spectacular fashion. But, much like the thousands of airplanes that land safely every day and don't make the news, major disasters are few and far between.
Still, the credibility of the corporate media continues to plummet.
In March, the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism published The State of the News Media 2004, which documents an increase in superficiality and sensationalism, the declining reach of newspapers and network newscasts, cutbacks in newsroom resources and, most significantly, rising public distrust and disdain for our reportage.
Then, in June, the Canadian Media Research Consortium, a national project led by three University-based organizations to promote research on the media, (http://www.cmrcccrm.ca) came out with its Report Card On Canadian News Media. While it showed that Canadians are significantly more positive about our news sources than Americans are, citizens here believe that "powerful people or organizations" have too much influence on the media agenda.
One thing is clear from both studies: The shift from mainstream media to alternate sources such as the ethnic press, cable networks and the Internet, are threatening the future of the solid, stolid mainstream journalism.
And we don't know how to deal with it. Recently, for example, the news came from the U.K. that staid old papers are going tabloid, while the Washington Post will lighten up — all to attract elusive younger readers.
As for the newscasts of the type that Rather hosts, well, one look at the commercials for arthritis pills will tell you plenty about their demographics.
Paradoxically, young people are crowding into journalism schools, many of them in search of network TV stardom.
Still, the pajamahadeen are waging war on the mainstream media.
That includes the paper you're reading, even if you're not reading it on paper, since it is the actually selling of this paper which pays for the content you may now be reading gratis.
By the end of today, who knows how many bloggers will have had at this column? Many of them often shoot me down — and some do a pretty good job. (See letitbleed.blogs.com)
But, just like trigger happy celebrants in the Middle East, who have yet to figure out that what goes up must come down, they can't see that, by firing up at us, they will also kill themselves.
Zerbiasis is a "she", not a "he". Longtime TV critic (now "media columnist") for the Toronto Star. No idea why she gets the pub that she does; she seems a real lightweight.
Thanks. So do we have an ugly gay lesbo here?
Check out this link Antonia:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1289443/posts
The writing is on the wall, lib, your days are numbered. Hiding in Socialist Canukistan will not help.
I'll let you mow my lawn for a few bucks after you can't make money writing about the wonderfulness of socialism.
No culture is better than another 101
We find comfort in knowing we cause the liberal elite news papers enough anguish to make point of it. May their days be numbered and their ignorance continue their demise. Do not buy their papers there are plenty of ways to get their dribble in order to shred it. Dear NY Times, it is not the end it is the end of the beginning. We are going to take back America and may your death be slow and painful.
"The shift from mainstream media to alternate sources such as the ethnic press, cable networks and the Internet, are threatening the future of the solid, stolid mainstream journalism."
Uh... The MSM are not solid, stolid or journalists. Most of them are partisan hacks for whatever liberal party they can find.
The MSM can solve their problem very easily. All they have to do is start reporting the news instead of slanting and creating the news.
This guy doesn't get it. He is doomed repeat the errors of Dan Rather and eventually stand at the door saying, "Welcome to Wal*Mart." He'll probably blame GW Bush.
She wrote me back. Not a bad response. Certainly not mean or hysterical. I told her we just wanted balance and responsibility in journalism and the media.
Hey! Post her response!
Fair and balanced.
The liver fluke is a good example. It lays an egg in the living animal host. The host sheds the egg thru the blood/bile connect to the intestines where it's dropped into the dirt/grass. Now comes the really cool part.......The egg is a delicacy to the snail, and because the egg needs an ant, the egg once swallowed by the snail throws out barbs which make it get lodged inside the throat of the snail who then reflex responses to puke out the egg along with the snail puke which happens to be a delicacy of ants. The ant then gobbles up the snail puke soup and the liverfluke egg with it. The plan gets really good here......The egg, sensing the ant's stomach then secretes a certain neurotoxin which effects the brain of the ant causing it to madly seek to climb anything around as high as possible at exactly the point when the sun is at the five o'clock position. The ant remains on the high point and will not move. Since five o'clock in the summer is the exact time of the evening grazing trigger for sheep as a cooler evening approaches, the sheep, who prefer the longer,cleaner, traditionally parasite egg free upper longest parts of the grass are guaranteed to consume the ant on the blade of tall grass along with the fluke egg in tha ant's stomach.
I'd say that liver fluke is a lot smarter than any professional journalist.
"Jubilated." There's a word you don't see in the newsppaer every day.
"Which goes to show that everyone should temper their posts accordingly. There are Eyes all around."
That's an important point. And related to that, I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to foster a forum culture in which we correct each other's spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage in a spirit of helpfulness rather than criticism.
I don't mean attacking people for their typos or mistakes, but just something like, "their posts --> his posts" or "I before E except after C."
Why do this? Well, to make ourselves look better educated, because there are indeed eyes all around, and many of the watchers will maliciously seize upon such things to discredit the whole. Besides, it would make posting to FR an educational experience as well.
Maybe we could even have a thread of "common mistakes," like:
Here, here --> hear, hear
Irregardless --> regardless
and so on.
Any takers? Are we mature enough to have our errors corrected in the spirit of good fellowship?
"So I trust FR far more than the MSM. News is faster and the truth is generally found out quickly."
That's right. Try posting inaccurate information here, and see how many seconds it is before somebody corrects you. You couldn't get away with citing the wrong name for Alexander the Great's horse here.
Anyone out there care to parse the the last sentence by our esteemed Toronto writer? Exactly how are 'thousands of safe flights' much like the 'few major disasters'? If the yahooo can't get Basic Similies and Metaphores 101 down right, why in hell should we pay any attention to anythig else this Canuck has to say?
Based on what I've seen in my years lurking on FR, the answer to your question is: 'No!' That's not to say I disagree with you at all; if a lot of Freepers would use the 'Spell' button before they post most of the really gross stuff would get filtered. Unfortuantely that still doesn't protect one from the your/you're, hear/here type of displays.
Ah well, you and I know what they're [there/their] trying to say.
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"This has been a simply outstanding month," crowed a poster on http://www.freerepublic.com. "Bush won, Arafat died, we're kicking ass in Fallujah, and now this!"
Thanks for the ping!
My pleasure, ma'am.
<snipped>
I'd say that liver fluke is a lot smarter than any professional journalist.
Two interesting comments. So how about the Emerald Ash Borer? Has it your hit area yet? Talk about an evolutionary dead-ender here, it has killed 100% of my ash trees. Need firewood? So Darwinian....
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