Blogs and Mainstream - A new balance of power
“There is something in the virtual air and the winds of change seem to be blowing harder“.
At Blogcritics.org, Margaret Romao Tolgo provides an analysis of how blogs are making their way into the mainstream and are directly affecting the news.
I couldn’t agree more with this comment by Ms. Tolgo:
The blogger coverage of Gannongate appears to have fallen victim to partisan spin that spun out of control. In their zeal to discredit Mr. Guckert/Gannon, the bloggers covering him got caught up in a salacious sidestory and lost sight of the most important issue which was suspicion that the White House might be engaging in the manipulation of the press — a most grave breech of our founding principles, if it is true — not that Mr. Guckert/Gannon used a pseudonym..or registered domains for gay pornography sites after having written anti-gay articles.
In the story of J.D. Guckert, it isn’t too late for the bloggers to steer and steady their course toward the “most important point“. I have been stressing this point since the blog-story broke. While the tawdry gay-escort portion of the tale is relevant to the story, the bigger issues must remain the focus. As evidenced in yesterday’s Washington Post Ombudsman’s editorial, the bloggers have done their job in bringing Guckert’s situation to the forefront. The mainstream, if you believe Michael Getler, will now seize this story as “their own”.
I was quoted in Ms. Tolgo’s article:
Jude Nagurney Camwell of The American Street offered this assesment (sic): “The ‘Right-wing mouth machine’ would like us all to think that Eason Jordan was ‘bad’ and ‘unAmerican’ for saying what he said. CNN has been complicit by their reticence to talk about tough issues. They wound up to be the biggest loser. They lost Eason Jordan. Eason was guilty before being proven innocent by no other process except one: the blog-trial.”
I stress my point once more:
Eason Jordan lost his position with CNN due to a blog trial. There was never a mainstream media discussion. The Star Tribune has a piece (ex post facto) about the Eason Jordan case, pointing out the fact that Jordan was out of a job before some major media outlets even reported there was a controversy.
Right wing blogs seized the moment in the case of Jordan.
CNN allowed themselves to be abused by the court of the right-wing in the rolling vigilante thunder of the new storm called the blog-mob.
Continued on Page Two
February 21st, 2005 at 1:19 pm
I think we liberals have been kicking our own butts. I agree that the Gannon story has far more important content than we’ve gone after and I think we’ve consistently missed opportunities in this and many other revelations about the Bush administration.
Time to shake off the torpor. At least in the matter of Gannon-Guckert, bloggers should be zero-ing in on the matter access to the White House, showing how media access is ideologically controlled and used as a weapon, pointing fingers at lack of Congressional oversight, pointing fingers at the MSM for not forcing the access issue — that’s what we should be doing.
Yes, I think going on about the Gannon website has revealed something awfully close to homophobia (certainly a kind of adolescent fascination) on the left, something which we seem very reluctant to face, more’s the pity.
February 21st, 2005 at 3:25 pm
Manipulation of the media to advance the distortion of truth is not exactly new. The level of and fresh ways of manipulation have increased.
Is it legal? Opinions have emanated that some of it is not, particularly in the cases of paid-off journalists, and with videos emulating newscasts, both funded with our tax dollars.
In the Guckert case, its legality has not come into question though its ethics have. The rules for obtaining a press pass were broken. Guckert’s record of agenda promotion that has masqueraded as news also raises ethical questions. There may be an illegal action if he was made privy to classified information, but no determination on that possibility has occurred.
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