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.
We should all send Antonia an email to express our interest in her article and our response in this thread.
Antonia's email address is listed as:
mailto: azerbis@thestar.ca
Hurling before I even eat Thanksgivng dinner.
Does anybody else think it's not a coincidence that Martha Stewart is scheduled to be released just a few days before this?
Perhaps SHE's gonna take Danny Boy's place?
What's the frequency, Martha???
</tinfoil>
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Antonia Zerbisias,
Three points:
1. You called FR a "Blog," which it is not, which shows your nervousness in our existence.
2. You say that we will not matter if you don't matter, which shows you haven't faith in the people; which is who WE ARE. Yet fail to realize that media bias is YOUR (MSM's)fault. Don't blame us for you people not doing your jobs.
3. The more your bias continues, the more driven we are to expose it. The more you complain about it's exposure, the more drive we have to do it again and again.
And the more attention you bring to this bias, the more people you'll drive away from your ring, and into our fold.
Keep it up. You must lurk, and I hope you read these posts.
Who are your favorite newspaper columnists (U.S? Canada?). What about specifically media-criticism writers?
"I admire many mainstream columnists, including Molly Ivins (a heroine and model), Helen Thomas, Paul Krugman, Robert Scheer, Richard Cohen, Maureen Dowd, Katha Pollit, David Corn, Lewis Lapham, etc."
"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."
Yes, they fail but they don't crash and burn. They keep right on spewing the same crap and they wonder why we question their accuracy. They still don't get it...
All Hail the mighty FR Pajamahadeen!
The author fails to grasp what takes place on the internet.
By quoting one offhand remark by a Freeper-(s)he thinks she's pigeon-holed the "blogsphere". NOTHING could be farther from the facts. (Surprise, surprise!)
One of the vital tasks we perform is checking sources and sifting through information as it's presented to us via newspapers, wire services, tv etc. We also have a huge coffee shop atmosphere- we exchange views, observations and ideas about "the news".
It might surprise Antonia to learn how much BETTER INFORMED we've become by having access to information we would never have seen before the internet and cable tv. Moreover- while I enjoy editorials that agree with my thinking- I make it a point to SEEK pieces that I don't agree with. It sharpens my mind, keeps me from getting one-dimensional and helps me understand why I believe as I do on a variety of topics.
I, for one, hope the print media never dies. Far from wanting it to die, I expect over time, it will be more accurate and un-biased. That will be good for us- and vital for journalism.
What. No mention of the Scott Peterson verdict? Who was this FReeper? Off with his head!
Perhaps, but the bias of the liberal media is there every hour of every day. Twenty-four and Seven as they say.
Oh shut up already.
What a queer article. This babbling prick fails to realize that if the msm would simply report the FACTS without editorializing or pimping their own agenda, then bloggers would be less compelled to clean up their garbage. The writer actually attempts to make a weak-ass comparison between the pajahadeens and trigger happy celebrants in the Middle East. A better comparison would be the msm and baghdad bob. We aren't buying your brand anymore. The writing is on the wall and idiots like this are in panic mode. I know you are reading this. Suffer bitch.
Just like newspaper columnists, such as Antonia Zerbisias.
I feel alienated and ignored by the media because I FReep in my underwear.
She's right about one thing: her paper is hurting financially...
Torstar surprises Street with weak quarter
By RICHARD BLOOM
Thursday, October 28, 2004, Page B1
Torstar Corp. surprised the Street with weaker-than-expected third-quarter profit after the close last night, blaming weak sales at its Harlequin division and charges stemming from severance packages at its flagship Toronto Star newspaper.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2FTPStory%2FLAC%2F20041028%2FRTORSTAR28%2FTPBusiness%2FTopStories&ord=1101399754142&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true
I wish (I dream) that someday, journalists will be licensed like Heinlein's Fair Witnesses...remember that? They had to tell the truth, and nothing but...Well, these "journalists" ought to be rigorously taught to stick to actual facts, with no slanted adjectives, perjorative nouns, injection of their prejudices, and weight of their editor's politics...That's what "journalist" OUGHT to mean.
I'm sure that certain politicians would like to regulate bloggers. That's just NOT going to happen.
That's right, the Toronto Star is also part of the same company that owns those Harlequin romance novels.
That's almost right. We're not the ones doing the digging. We're just going to hold the shovel while they get in.
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