Another apology. (Thanks, Instapundit.) Well, kind of apology; title is “Confronting Right-Wing Hysteria.” And its gist is that the “apology” concerns the niggling–an unimportance communicated by parentheses: “(Truthfully, I had to listen to a webcast of my presentation before I actually recalled what I said.)” So Linda Foley writes.
Media
In the Spirit of Walter Duranty
The Los Angeles Times has published an absolutely despicable article about North Korea. Article here; reactions by Hugh Hewitt (along with many links to other comments) here.
Hugh says that the LAT has thus far chosen to publish none of the letters to the editor which have been e-mailed in response to this article.
Another Example of Spin
One of the things that frustrates those who are involved in self defense issues is the media’s stance on firearms. According to many news stories, guns aren’t merely weapons but are instead demonic devices that force otherwise peaceful people who come in contact with them to explode into violence and slaughter the innocent.
What’s carefully left out of these thinly disguised op-eds is the fact that firearms in the hands of average citizens save many more lives than are taken by criminals.
Taking Credit, Taking the Blame
Remember back when you were a kid. Did your Mom or Dad ever say that you were supposed to tell the truth if you did something bad? Own up to it and take your lumps?
If you’re a productive, supportive member of society then something like this must have happened. Personal responsibility is the lesson.
Cori over at Rantingprofs has the scoop. MSNBC reported that the lead judge in the upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein was assassinated. The spin was that Iraq was such a dangerous and out-of-control place that the terrorists can kill anyone, even someone who had been living under such extreme security measures that his identity was kept secret.
Cori points out that the author of the MSNBC report seems to have forgotten that the judge’s identity wasn’t so secret after all. It had been published by Robert Fisk.
It eventually turned out that the first reports were in error, and the judge was safe. That still doesn’t excuse what appears to either be an attempt to ignore the facts in order to present a negative image, or an effort to cover for a fellow journalist that put an innocent man’s life in danger.
Watchdog
By now, everyone who is interested has heard the tale of CNN news chief Eason Jordan. Jordan makes wild and unsubstantiated claims, big media ignore the story, and the blogs won’t shut up about it. Eventually Eason resigns in disgrace.
Bloggers like to say that they’ll replace MSM some day. Not gonna happen. We don’t have the resources to gather data, interview people, and get the stories out in a coherent way.
But Eason and Rathergate has shown what we’re good for. Keeping them honest, shining a thousand tiny lights at outrageously biased behavior and unsubstantiated claims until everyone notices.
So it’s important that we realize that we’re like a swarm of unpaid editors and ombudsmen, not the reporters who know how to get the goods. Unless we happen to be very lucky we’re not going to break the big story. Instead we’re going to make sure that uncomfortable truths aren’t buried in favor of some agenda.
Big media claim that we’re getting in the way. They say that we’re just a bunch of partisan hacks who wouldn’t know good journalism if it came up and bit us on the nose. The unrelenting harping of the blogs, they say, is making it harder for them to do their jobs.
Well, we might make it harder for MSM to do their job, but we’re also forcing them to do it right.
UPDATE
Ginny, one of my fellow Chicago Boyz, makes a wonderful observation in the comments below, comparing bloggers to old-style ham radio operators. She even manages to work in a reference to Libertarians. Well worth your time.