MSM: Time to Scrutinize Attack-BloggersThe next time Howard Kurtz hears Jeff Jarvis insisting, to the public, that the aim was merely "truth" in the Easongate-hunting-down of Eason Jordan, he should remember to hold Jarvis to a higher standard than that to which he held him on CNN's Reliable Sources today.
Jarvis was speaking for the bloggers and others in the internet community who signed those petitions which were sent to CNN.
This was a lynching and a trial by blog with no offense sufficient to cause a 23-year news veteran to lose (or relinquish) his job in order to save the network from being unfairly tarnished.
I think that Howard Kurtz could have been better prepared.
He should have asked Jarvis to explain the easy-to-find words of the very citizens of the blogworld who are targeting mainstream journalists.
Here are some examples. They weren't very hard to find.
If bloggers and everyday people are doing the targeting and crucifying, then we need to start holding them to standards and scrutiny. It's professional careers they are seeking to destroy.
Their Neo-McCarthyism is too easily carried out, and the mainstream is letting them get away with professional murder all too easily.
Why aren't mainstream journalists asking more questions?
Are they afraid they'll be next on the hit list?
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At Dean's World, my blogging-colleague (and someone I consider to be a friend) Joe Gandelman posts a partial transcript from the Reliable Sources show today:
"Bloggers didn't want his head, most of us didn't. We wanted the truth," said Jeff Jarvis today on Reliable Sources. There were no other bloggers on the CNN show to counter Jarvis.
I have seen and heard the real motives of the Right too many times in my years spent on internet political forums to believe a word of this. "Liberal media" must die.
I hope Joe and other sensible people will think carefully about what I'm saying here. This does not look like justice to me. They're playing with real people's careers here. This is no game.
Future Headline:
"Grassroots killed the
radio star"This is how the Right wing mouth machine will eventually wind up with a clown-sized foot stuffed into its falsehood-ridden smile. Hosts of Right-wing talk-radio heavily depend upon their favorite writers in the mainstream press, the ones with big megaphones who spout off blatant lies and expect people to continue believing them.
Allow me to use the recent topic of Howard Dean's DNC win as an example:
As bizarre as it might seem, liberal media bias is proving to be a boon for the GOP. In its complete Bush-era meltdown, the liberal media elite is applying absolutely no brakes to the Dean "revolution" taking over the DNC. They are moving further and further to the left, and the media are offering nothing but happy talk. The cliff is in sight, and the Pied Piper press is set to lead the party over the edge.
--Brent Bozell
Note the "key" words.
"Liberal media bias": No such animal. With any news organization, there is an opportunity for good, investigative journalism; for sloppy, clumsy journalism; and for propagandandizing. How many people still believe Fox News' strong support for the White House claims about WMDs in Iraq?If you do not see a strong right-tilted bias in Fox News reporting, I submit that you are either deaf or politically non-perceptive. Bozell will be proven to have been dead-wrong.
"Liberal Media Elite": These are people who, until now, have offered you what you once called "the news". Back in the days when the press was supposed to ask the tough questions without fearing they'd have to "watch what they say" (*from a quote attributed to Ari Fleischer). Before some of the media-elite were jailed for protecting sources. Before party-operatives like Jeff Gannon were planted in the White House press corps to push the propaganda of the White House. Before the government paid journalists to push their propaganda and journalists concealed the all-important fact. Before the profession was dumbed-down and right-tilted. Before right-wing lynch-blogmobs acted in direct line with White House interests and averred, after destroying good men's careers, a la McCarthyism, that they were only seeking the "truth" (while, in effect, eliminating the universal truth's potential to be known). Brent Bozell will be proven to have been dead wrong.
"Meltdown": Indicating an air of desperation, which is totally untrue, in light of the fact that Dean went unchallenged and was wholly supported by the grassroots in every state. By taking his rightful, elected place as DNC Chair, Dean serves as a symbol of new hope and a united Democratic party. Bozell is trying to sell his readers on the story that "grassroots" means "liberal". Brent Bozell will be proven to have been dead-wrong.
"Revolution Taking over the DNC": Bozell makes it sound like the state party chairs went kicking and screaming. He couldn't be more wrong. What he completely neglects to tell his reading public, which is a sin in good journalism, is that Howard Dean was desired by the people and not the Washington elite. The good people of America - from all across this land, red states and blue states, wanted Howard Dean to be party chair. Bozell chooses, by his phraseology, to present the election of Dean in a controversial light. Among the people of America who call themselves Democrats, it simply is not true. We unite around our party chair. Bozell will be proven to have been dead-wrong.
"The cliff": Indicating a prediction of future total failure for the Democratic party, which I believe is terribly melodramatic for a man who's putting himself out there as a serious, unbiased political journalist. Brent Bozell will be proven to have been dead-wrong.
"Happy talk" from "Pied Piper press": Isn't this what we hear from Fox News day in/day out, until we want to puke from all the propaganda, already? Is Brent Bozell serious? What about the "happy talk" when Howard Dean's presidential candidacy was not only derailed, but obliterated by the "Pied piper press"?
Hoffmania says: They have to launch a new pantload of lies to sell to the American public, and we have to throw up as many roadblocks as we can. Dean's on to their M.O. - much more so than Terry McAuliffe ever could hope to be.
But it won't happen by itself. We need to feed our shiny new media machine, folks.
At the end of each post, there's a button you can use to contribute directly to the New DNC. We're not going to hang ourselves out to dry this time. Thanks for coming here. Now be there.
Grassroots citizens across America are a force in politics once again. Writers like Brent Bozell are afraid, as well they should be. They will be proven dead-wrong, time and time again.
The GOP and the journalists who coddle them will not get away with smearing Howard Dean. I've devoted most of my blog, since its inception, to issues related to Howard Dean. I've been an eye-witness to the smearing as it took place. I have it all documented, concisely and neatly. This is the beauty of the art of the blog. Brent Bozell, a darling of Right-wing talk radio and Fox News, will be proven to have been dead-wrong about this smearing of Howard Dean. His code words will serve to eventually betray him and all who lurk from their right-wing spiderholes from which they spew the tripe they label and try to pass off as "professional journalism".
Right-wing talk radio is already seen by the grassroots Democrats as nothing but propaganda, and as time marches on, Limbaugh and his ilk will be proven to have been nothing more than hacks and shysters, raking in millions while trafficking political lies.
My prediction for the very-near future:
The voices of Right-wing talk radio (and Propaganda-Media) will be "killed" by the grassroots, because the grassroots are the real and true voices of America.
