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10.1.04 @ 12:01AM

QUOTABLE NOTABLE
Being a collector of conservative quotes, it was kinda cool and prescient of Mr. Tyrrell to note in 1992 in his book The Conservative Crack-Up:

"One envisages the news editor just minutes before Dan Rather is to go on the air reviewing the lead story for the CBS Evening News: 'Perfect! Not one word is accurate. Not one statistic is true or informative. We'll go with it! This is news! The illusions of our time remain intact!'"

Megadittoes from Flyover Country,
-- Rick Reuss, P.T.
Madison, Indiana

BLOGORRHEA
Re: Lawrence Henry's What Blogs Can't Do:

As a Free Republic Pajama Person, I claim no desire to take over the responsibility of being a news collector. Are not reporters employed to "report" the news? Thanks to Al Gore's invention of the Internet, we have the resources to analyze and discuss the alpha networks' DNA.

Our existence is the byproduct of the total abuse of mainstream media's own code of ethics. Consider the stain on Monica's blue dress the "shot heard 'round the world!" Until they wise up and report the truth and keep their own political leanings aside, they are going to feel like a naked man at a proctologist's convention.
-- Alan Jackson
Martinez, Georgia

If Lawrence Henry was ever right about blogs, he is already wrong. Many of the leading blogs do have a major beat. Many bloggers do perform significant original fact reporting and investigating. Henry's critique of the blog-as-personal-diary is misplaced because (a) that is not (and never was) the paradigmatic news-related blog and (b) that genre does include some quality journalism. And as for resources, the larger blogs are attracting significant paid advertising.

Lastly, the crack about blatant self-regard among bloggers is silly. The celebration in the blogosphere over Rathergate is far less self-regarding that the corresponding counterwave of pompous Tom Oliphantish prose about just how darn "professional" Old Media folks think themselves to be. Lazy self-regard and arrogant dismissal of criticism is still the province of Old Media. That is the root cause of Rathergate.

Paid journalism and newsgathering will continue but it will have to become more specialized and professional to survive and adapt. When the revolution is complete, the lazy, politicized, liberal-yuppie generalist who today gets to produce lazy formulaic attacks in print and on the air will no longer rise to the status of senior reporter or editor. He or she will be the one at home in pajamas, unpaid and ranting into unvisited cyberspace.
-- George Tobin
North Potomac, Maryland

You gotta be kidding me!

"The public wants to know some certain things on a regular and predictable basis: Whether a storm is coming..." The Weather Channel is available on the Internet, and updated hourly.

"...whether the local schools are open or closed..." Are bloggers rejoicing in their ability to provide this kind of information? If the local radio station goes under due to extreme bias, try calling the school.

"...what time the baseball game comes on..." Satellite and digital TV program guides (electronic and direct mail), TV Guide, and oh yeah, the Internet.

"...where the candidates are..." Do people really need to know where the candidates are faster than it can be posted on the Internet by a blogger?

"...what's happening in Iraq..." Same as above. This is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Mainstream Media, Television, Books, Movies, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO, Nuclear Weapons