According to Gregory, the blogs "have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views." Ee gads! Gasp! As Daily Kos' "Susan G" writes:
There's been some fascinating discussion recently in the Virginia Democratic blogosphere about - what else? - blogs and blogging. In particular, see The Daily Whackjob ("Can't Touch That - Bloggers and Campaigns Parting Ways?") and Vivian Paige ("About blogging and bloggers"). Adam Sharp at Daily Whackjob asks an interesting question:
...are bloggers too edgy, too irreverent, too eager to upset the apple cart and push the envelope, and therefore too dangerous for politicians to embrace? Are we destined to be the black sheep of the process?
Well, Adam, it looks like we now have the answer to your question from none other than White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, NBC's David Gregory, and Newsweek's White House correspondent Richard Wolffe. In short, we are bad bad BAD. Heck, according to these guys we're bad to the bone, with pretty much no redeeming qualities as far as I can see. Why?According to Gregory, the blogs "have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views." Ee gads! Gasp! As Daily Kos' "Susan G" writes:
Can you imagine that? The nerve! People actually use White House press conferences to form and support political views! And then they write about those views! Where anybody can read and see and respond and argue and fact-check them! And they haven't been seen - not once! - at a cocktail party in DC. Next thing you know, they'll start thinking regular old ordinary people have a right to opinions or something.
Hehe, and next thing you know, we might even start expecting the mainstream media (MSM) to ask tough questions and to dig for real information, not just to lazily and uncritically accept whatever scraps are thrown to them by the politicians. In other words, we might start expecting these guys to do the job that Newsweek's White House correspondent says is their "role" - "to ask questions and get information." Yeah, that sure WOULD be nice if these guys would do that!
In the meantime, since most of the MSM obviously is NOT doing this job, we've got the blogs. And for all their faults - including occasional bouts of hysteria like this or lunacy like this - at least someone out here is willing to "ask questions and get information." At least someone out here is willing to to hold our elected officials accountable. And at least someone out here is willing to dig for the truth behind the spin. Cuz it ain't (most of) the MSM guys, that's for damn sure!
Blogs have to push the envelope because so few members of the national media do, in part because they don't want to lose sources.
The Daily Howler provides the following insights:
http://www.dailyhowl...
[...]In October 2000, Margaret Carlson explained. Carlson appeared on the Imus show to discuss press coverage of Bush and Gore's first debate. As she noted, Gore was being slammed as a liar because of a few exceptionally trivial misstatements. (To state the obvious, most of Gore's alleged "misstatements" weren't misstatements at all.) Meanwhile, much larger howlers were being ignored-misstatements by Bush about policy matters. Speaking with Imus, Carlson explained the double standard. Here she was, explaining why Bush's groaners were being ignored:CARLSON (10/10/00): You can actually disprove some of what Bush is saying if you really get in the weeds and get out your calculator or you look at his record in Texas. But it's really easy, and it's fun, to disprove Gore.
Amazing, isn't it? (And perhaps you can sense the "liberal bias.") According to Carlson, the press was trashing Gore over trivia because it was "easy" and "fun" to do so! The millionaire pundit kept talking:
CARLSON: I actually happen to know people who need government, and so they would care more about the programs, and [less] about the things we kind of make fun of?But as sport, and as our enterprise, Gore coming up with another whopper is greatly entertaining to us. And we can disprove it in a way we can't disprove these other things.
[...]FOOD FIGHT: Why did Gore give the press lesser food? Why else? Because he's a nerd:
CARLSON (page 105): Gore wanted the snacks to be environmentally and nutritionally correct, but somehow granola bars ended up giving way to Fruit Roll-Ups and the sandwiches came wrapped and looked long past their sell-by date. On a lucky day, someone would remember to buy supermarket doughnuts. By contrast, a typical day of food on Air Bush?consisted of five meals with access to a sixth, if you count grazing at a cocktail bar. Breakfast one was French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon?
[...]But she spends much more time discussing the way Bush provided better food on his plane. Mmmm! "There were Dove bars and designer water on demand," she recalls, "and a bathroom stocked like Martha Stewart's guest suite. Dinner at seven featured lobster ravioli." Apparently, Bush's policies reflect the tastes of "those that have" even when dinner bells chime.
[...]
During this program, did you hear Wolffe say he was a "foodie"? Guess we know how independent he might be.
Thank you Margaret....now go on a diet!
When it comes to posting comments though there are still blogs which are censored. (Some won't allow the mention of the "I" country in any context.) And some of the standards for comments on blogs are just plain weird. For instance, at Huffpo if you get off topic a little but are still sharing important political information your comment can be removed with a message that you are off topic. On the other hand they allow pages and pages of immature personal attacks between bloggers which contain childish insults, etc. This happens over and over again in comments on their various posts. All I can figure out about this is that they think people enjoy reading these.
Every blog has its own character and I post comments at several blogs.