2004 - The Year In Review II
2004 will probably be long remembered as the Year of the Blog. This year, online bloggers, such as PowerLine and Little Green Footballs managed to successfully take on the MSM and expose their left-leaning bias.
Probably the most talked about success of the Blogoshpere was the exposing of blatantly-forged documents aired by Dan Rather on CBS's 60 Minutes II. Within hours of the "news" segment, PowerLine provided sufficient cause to doubt the credibility of Rather's documents. Almost immediately after posting the CBS documents and an identical document that was reproduced in Microsoft Word - using the default settings - the Blogosphere picked up the ball and ran with it. For almost two weeks, Rather maintained that the documents were scrupulously and thoroughly verified, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Finally, after ten days, Rather admitted that the documents are not as "verified" as he had originally claimed. Instead of saying "Oops, I screwed up," Rather went with the approach of claiming that, even though the documents were not proven to be authentic, they still told a bigger story, and demanded that President Bush answer the allegations made by these "fake, but accurate" documents.
Dan Rather was noted for his tenacity at attempting to unseat President Richard Nixon after the Watergate incident. In attempting to unseat another president, George Bush, he appeared to repeat the same mistakes that Richard Nixon made. And, in so doing, utterly destroyed his both his credibility as a journalist and that of the entire CBS news organization.
In an effort to hide their culpability, the other MSM outlets - like ABC, NBC, and CNN - jumped on the story, hoping that doing so would shield them from the fallout of the CBS disaster. Once again, the Blogosphere came into play. Hot on the heels of Rather-gate came the exposure of another memo pointing out the left-wing bias of the MSM. This time, it was an internal ABC memo saying that they needed to hold George Bush more accountable for the things he says, and to cover up for John Kerry as much as possible. The MSM refused to report on this story, but the Blogosphere - which now had more attention than ever before - ran it. Eventually, the story grew legs, and other MSM outlets had to run the story in order to keep up with the Blogs.
Major news executives dismissed the Blogosphere as a bunch of people sitting at home in their pajamas who had no accountability. On the contrary, the Blogoshpere had become self-correcting. If one Blogger was off on his facts, other Bloggers stepped in with more information to correct these inaccuracies.
The MIPs (Men In Pajamas) show no signs of stopping to rest on their laurels. In fact, as time progresses, more and more Blogs come into play - such as the one you're reading now.
Welcome to the media of the future. Welcome to the Pajamahudeen.
Probably the most talked about success of the Blogoshpere was the exposing of blatantly-forged documents aired by Dan Rather on CBS's 60 Minutes II. Within hours of the "news" segment, PowerLine provided sufficient cause to doubt the credibility of Rather's documents. Almost immediately after posting the CBS documents and an identical document that was reproduced in Microsoft Word - using the default settings - the Blogosphere picked up the ball and ran with it. For almost two weeks, Rather maintained that the documents were scrupulously and thoroughly verified, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Finally, after ten days, Rather admitted that the documents are not as "verified" as he had originally claimed. Instead of saying "Oops, I screwed up," Rather went with the approach of claiming that, even though the documents were not proven to be authentic, they still told a bigger story, and demanded that President Bush answer the allegations made by these "fake, but accurate" documents.
Dan Rather was noted for his tenacity at attempting to unseat President Richard Nixon after the Watergate incident. In attempting to unseat another president, George Bush, he appeared to repeat the same mistakes that Richard Nixon made. And, in so doing, utterly destroyed his both his credibility as a journalist and that of the entire CBS news organization.
In an effort to hide their culpability, the other MSM outlets - like ABC, NBC, and CNN - jumped on the story, hoping that doing so would shield them from the fallout of the CBS disaster. Once again, the Blogosphere came into play. Hot on the heels of Rather-gate came the exposure of another memo pointing out the left-wing bias of the MSM. This time, it was an internal ABC memo saying that they needed to hold George Bush more accountable for the things he says, and to cover up for John Kerry as much as possible. The MSM refused to report on this story, but the Blogosphere - which now had more attention than ever before - ran it. Eventually, the story grew legs, and other MSM outlets had to run the story in order to keep up with the Blogs.
Major news executives dismissed the Blogosphere as a bunch of people sitting at home in their pajamas who had no accountability. On the contrary, the Blogoshpere had become self-correcting. If one Blogger was off on his facts, other Bloggers stepped in with more information to correct these inaccuracies.
The MIPs (Men In Pajamas) show no signs of stopping to rest on their laurels. In fact, as time progresses, more and more Blogs come into play - such as the one you're reading now.
Welcome to the media of the future. Welcome to the Pajamahudeen.
posted by Vic at 11:35 AM
<< Home