Clear that up?
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.
This smug, smartass (but very lightweight smartass) "journalist," in the very act of mocking a spelling error, makes a grammatical error of his own. Brackets, not parentheses, must be used whenever sic, which means "as it appears in the original text," is inserted in a text by a second party.
The multiple layers of checks and balances could not detect a a very poorly made forgery that one of our Freepers did in about 30 minutes. When the news media is no longer biased we will not be needed. Antonio needs to try and figure out why the Main Stream Media is going down in ratings and FOX and the bloggers are going up. He needs to wonder why Kerry received the best coverage by the MSM of any candidate since Kennedy. He needs to ask why rumors (proven false) about Bush's service in the Texas National Guard were lead topics on the nightly news and not one damn reporter every even once questioned the record of Kerry nor asked him why he would not release all his military records as President Bush did. The bloggers are not destroying the MSM, it is the MSM that is killing itself with BIAS!
PSIt "ain't" rocket science.
Ah, a fellow Austinite!
Keep me posted on your Statesman-bashing articles!
BTW dont support that rag! We get it only on Sunday now. Save money save paper save your sanity!
Freshman courses --
Developing a political agenda 101
Plagiarism and why it's OK 101
Using AP beats writing 101
How to imbed Democrat talking points into a story 101
Choosing a hairstyle 101
This all reminds me of this thread!
PC Indoctrination: Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic, Religious Profiling
bttt
Oh... is that what he meant? Then why didn't he say that?
I just love to see these whiny *ss liberal bedwetters crying. I*m laying in bed FReeping in my pajamas right now, and I LOVE it. It*s the ONLY way to go. :)
What an idiot. If the MSM had been doing their job in the first place there wouldn't be a need for the PJMHDN to take them on (and down).
"Zerbiasis"
You know, a little "Head and Shoulders" can clear that right up. :P
The left-wing spin machine just doesn't get it ~ Bump!
Clear that up?
OOOOHHH NO!Say it aint so!!!!
"It was unfortunate that we had to take Rather out, but he had too much power and was abusing it too badly. That is dangerous for the Republic."
A FReeper once posted to me that Rather got his start covering the shooting of JFK. At the time, he was a local newscaster/reporter/whatever. One segment he said the bullet came from one direction. The next segment he said the bullet came from another. A star was born.
Is that what you call that get-up? I thought it was your superhero outfit.....
Bloggers may be digging a grave, but who it is for has yet to be determined.
If these people could just rid themselves of the insufferable arrogance of 'MSM mind' they would take a giant step up. . .
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