I Got Your Opinion Swarm RIGHT HERE!
I just finished reading Hugh Hewitt‘s latest screed, BLOG, and while I’m not a fan of his style in this book (or the editing – it was obviously rushed to the printer in order to take advantage of the post-election frenzy) he makes some excellent points. (Over and over again…)
The one point he stresses is that blogs, through what he calls “opinion storms” create “blog swarms” that force the mainstream media to cover stories they’d otherwise avoid like the plague. In cases like Rathergate, it forces them to study their own navels and expose things they’d rather not have exposed.
Instapundit or some other top-tier blogger will find something, and then those of us in the “tail” of the blogosphere – we who represent the Large Mammals and lower species on the Truth Laid Bear’s Ecosystem – pick it up and run with it. Suddenly it crosses over from being strictly a blog topic to being general public knowledge. Then the media has to comment on it, because everyone wonders “why haven’t I heard anything about this on the news?”
Well, the guys at Power Line have found one that really pisses me off, and Instapundit has linked to it. Here’s my 2ยข for the blog swarm:
It seems that ABC News wants a counterpoint for Bush’s inauguration tomorrow. They want to do a story on a military funeral for a soldier killed in Iraq. As Hindrocket stated:
Note that only the families of Iraqi war dead need apply. If a soldier died in Afghanistan, or aiding tsunami victims in Indonesia or Sri Lanka, or in a training exercise, never mind. That isn’t the “balance” ABC is looking for.
Every time I think the MSM have stooped as low as they can go, they surprise me.
What slime. All the news that’s fit to slant.
Captain Ed has comments, too. I agree with this one:
Whoever posted this at ABC needs a soul transplant. Disgusting.
Actually, those two. In addition, Captain Ed notes that ABC yanked the offending web page, but he has it archived.
Won’t they ever learn that the Internet has a LONG MEMORY??
Spread this around to everyone you know, would you? Obviously Rathergate didn’t teach anybody anything.
UPDATE, 1/21: Peter (hawk, spit) Jennings intoned deeply last night on the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Holloway’s funeral yesterday in Corpus Christi Texas on the ABC Evening News. They didn’t send a reporter, Jennings just mentioned the funeral in conjunction with his remarks on the inauguration.
I didn’t watch it, I just heard about it on Rush.
The report on the funeral is in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times (registration required, or use username: [email protected], password: buggers. Bugmenot works.