MSM 2, Blogs 0
The mainstream media blew the cover on the Eliza Jane Scovill story, calling AIDS bloggers who knew about it and failed to report it into question. Today we have another example of good behavior by the MSM and reprehensible spin and corruption on the part of bloggers. Aaron Broussard, the crocodile tears Louisiana politician who took a pack of lies to Meet the Press three weeks ago, was back on yesterday, and as any regular viewer of MTP would expect, he was asked to clarify his false narrative. Broussard switched the tears on and then switched them off, finally going on the attack.
Some bloggers, including Guardian columnist Jeff Jarvis, Howard Dean’s paid shill David Weinberger, and Dean Esmay co-blogger Joe Gandelman are all up in Tim Russert’s face about this; they wanted Broussard’s lies about missing “cavalry” to stand, so they accuse Russert of an “ambush:”
In this case, it was worse than a parlor game. It was an ambush. It was an attempt to discredit the story’s teller in order to deny the story’s meaning. It was contemptible. And, Brian points out, it didn’t help that Russert consistently mispronounced the drowned woman’s name.
John Cole correctly points out that we’ve come to a new low in our little blogosphere:
Huh? I guess the brave new world of the blogosphere has moved from “We fact check your ass” to “We fact check your ass unless it spoils our narrative.” By these new “fake but accurate” standards, Dan Rather should ask for his job back.
So it’s official: the blogs are no longer part of the solution, they’re part of the problem. Every blogger has a political bias, and none of us has an editor. We’re playing a game of who can yell the loudest, not who can reason the sweetest and collect the most telling facts.
It’s a post-modernist blog world, so spin baby spin.
It’s about time for me to give this up; being a blogger these days is about as respectable as being a serial killer. Probably less, because at least serial killers are doing something about over-population.
UPDATE: See the video at Political Teen.
UPDATE: See Jeff Goldstein’s take on this story, more sanguine than mine toward bloggers. And also note that the three amigos bashing Russert (Weinberger, Jarvis, and Gandleman) all have comments enabled on their blogs, where they’re catching hell from readers (except Weinberger, who censors). And despite this, none of them has offered a clarification, defense, or correction of his wrong position. That’s a bit high-and-mighty.
- September 26th
“…It’s about time for me to give this up; being a blogger these days is about as respectable as being a serial killer. Probably less, because at least serial killers are doing something about over-population…”
If this were ESPN’s “Around The Horn” I’d give you three points…
The MSM repeated these claims, too. This was not a MSM vs. blogs issue. It was a liberal v. conservative issue. And the conservatives in the MSM and on the blogs were wrong.