Free Republic

It was supposed to eradicate grumpiness from Germany. Instead, the "Du Bist Deutschland" ad campaign flopped -- and the campaign's leaders became the global blogosphere's favorite whipping boy. Du Bist Deutschland was the top Technorati search in the world last week. Zoom Du Bist Deutschland was the top Technorati search in the world last week. The idea seemed like a good one: an ad campaign to buck up the German spirit and remind the depressive citizens of Europe's largest (but struggling) economy that things really aren't all that bad. Ad agencies, newspapers and a number of celebrities donated some €30...

It took the Eason Jordan scandal to finally get the mainstream media up in arms about the phenomenon of blogging. And now Big Media appears resolved to take bloggers down a notch by any means necessary. Those means include trying to portray bloggers as some kind of vicious collective dedicated more to "collecting scalps" than contributing to the national discourse. Thus we have Steve Lovelady of the Columbia Journalism Review stating that bloggers are "salivating morons" who are part of a "lynch mob." (Lovelady claims that his remarks were "taken out of context" and not meant to apply to all...

Hey kids, check out my nifty new tagline above. (Thanks to my web guru, Mark Jaquith, for the design.) You like? I think it's a keeper. If you don't get the allusion, click on the asterisk for a refresher and then come on back here and read on. I've got a calm, cool, and collected bit to say about this. Wall Street Journal editorial writer Bret Stephens appeared on Hugh Hewitt's radio show last night to defend his paper's strange and snotty treatment of the Eason Jordan "kerfuffle." (Full transcript at Radioblogger.) I found the following remarks, in which the...

Richard Sambrook of the BBC, David Gergen of Harvard, and Senator Christopher Dodd have all weighed in their initial measures on Easongate. Much of this can be followed at Michelle Malkin's site, Hugh Hewitt, and Rebecca MacKinnon. We now understand that the WEF is mulling over the release of the videotape of the session with Jordan, and that there is a small debate brewing regarding the "on" or "off" the record nature of the session. I have also heard from the WEF's Head of Media, Mark Adams, just a few hours ago. Mark was kind enough to reply to an...

"The Most Busted Name In News" This Isn't Writing, It's Typing posts additional detail from a French blogger in the audience at Davos. More damning details. In Blog I wrote about CNN's massive effort to rebrand itself as "The Most Trusted Name in News." Today, thanks to Jordan, it is the most busted name in news, and the rebranding campaign is now worse than a joke --every billboard or commecial on which it appears or is intoned is a reminder of the vast gap between the promise and the delivery. Do the Time Warner folks see the damage this erratic...

Maybe this is what Eason's talking about . . . The blog Resonant Information attempts to uncover the names of the journalists that Eason might have been referring to, and the circumstances surrounding each of their deaths. The conclusion: This brings the total to twelve, so if someone handed Eason Jordan the same information I've just provided here, it's entirely possible that he said what he did in good faith. Blogs keep decrying him as a liar, and asking for names — here they are. It is admittedly a little unfair to ask the US military to prove a negative,...

Swarms of bloggers, in a furious feeding frenzy that I have only seen before in sharks, are tasting blood and moving in for the kill. What has now been dubbed "Easongate" by Rebecca MacKinnon has begun to leak into comics, hundreds of blogs, as well as the Washington Times (Friday 2/5/05 Op/Ed, "CNN's Line of Fire". I just saw on NBC's Chris Matthews show fellow blogger and political pundit Hugh Hewitt break the story on American television, promising that next week Easongate would blow open as big news. A lynch mob of bloggers is asking for Eason's head, and it...

Hugh Hewitt is a master of his craft and proves it with his description of the MSM's disparate treatment of Jordan and Mattis. It took only 48 hours for four major newspapers to run stories on comments made by Lt. Gen. Mattis this past Tuesday [HT: Hugh]). The General provided the MSM with a meaty sound bite, "It's fun to shoot some people" and they went with it. But why the blackout of the apparently equally meaty soundbites provided by CNN Chief Eason Jordan? According to one blogger who was present during Jordan's remarks, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew...

If you’re following this story, make sure you’re checking the updates at the end of this post. The latest news: The videotape of the forum has surfaced. ——————————————————————————————- Read the original post and The Eason Jordan Repository I for background on this subject. This is Day Two or Three of the Eason Jordan blog swarm, and the controversy finally made the papers. Is the Washington Times considered Big Media? So far they’re the only newspaper that picked up on the Eason Jordan fiasco, CNN’s line of fire. The only blog mentioned is Forumblog.org, which is a good thing, but there’s...