Why Is It?
That every time I read one of these MSM screeds against blogs and bloggers, it's directed at the more right leaning blogs? In saying that, I am not trying to say that some bloggers jumped the gun. I didn't read any personally, but I am quite sure some did. Some bloggers undoubtedly called Jill Carroll all kinds of names. This blog was not one of them.
But I routinely read extreme, vicious comments and posts on some of the lefty blogs, too. Why has there never (to my knowledge) been any calls by the MSM for people like Kos when he says "screw them" about fellow Americans being killed and their bodies hung from bridges? Why no calls for blogs on the left to stop it when they go overboard? Or apologize when they trumpet something that turns out to be false?
That said, are there some bloggers who should apologize? I would guess yes there are. They should, too.
But should all bloggers be smeared because of a few who did jump the gun? Maybe that's just human nature. I tend to think pretty badly about the bulk of the MSM because of (quite) a few bad actions lately. Does that mean all reporters are bad. Not at all. There are some really good ones. When I point out the bad ones I guess it's easy to generalize that I hate all of them. I don't.
Blogging is actually a bit harder than it would appear to a reporter for a traditional MSM outlet. We are subject to instant fact checking and instant feedback. And commenters can be quite vehement in their choice of words (you should have seen the ones that got nuked). I honestly try to fact check and find alternate sources for a lot of things, I also sometimes try to make jokes, or just shoot something out in an offhand way. Ultimately, I alone, not a big network or newspaper, have to answer for what I write. If I do it right, people will come back and read what I have to say. If I don't they will not return.
It does bother me that this kind of MSM article seems to be directed only at one part of the blogosphere.
Media, Observations | Gaius Friday, 7 April , 2006
By Tom, Friday, 7 April , 2006 @ 10:06 pm
The MSM can share some blame. There is an excellent piece by Eric Alterman on Mother Jones that correctly points out “While there’s plenty of criticism to go around in the partisan media, the mainstream media deserves some of the blame for the rush to judgment, as well. Many television news outfits simply broadcast her coerced video statements without putting the tapes in the context they deserved. Simply running the tapes without stating that they were coerced fed the beast, and as a result, many jumped to conclusions warped by their own ideological perspectives.”
Still, the Ellen Goodman article you referenced makes some undeniably good points about what the blogosphere has become.
By Gauis Arbo, Friday, 7 April , 2006 @ 10:15 pm
Well, the biggest problem is that she notes exactly two blogs out of how many thousands?
Every, and I do mean every, blog that I read on the rightish side that commented on Carroll was not condemning her but was asking “WTF?” Is this for real? Has she been coerced?
In other words, not condemning her. Just trying to figure out what was going on. Now some commenters may have gone overboard, too. But they are not the bloggers. And blaming the blog for the commenters is kind of lame.