Public Eye
May 5, 2006 1:00 PM

Mainstream Media Does Story On Growing Influence Of Blogs, Blogs React By Chiding Mainstream Media

By
Hillary Profita
Topics
Blog Buzz
(CBS/AP)
Last night, the NBC "Nightly News" aired a story on the growing number and influence of blogs – you can watch it here. "What started as lonely voices from laptops are a growing influence in the mainstream media," correspondent Dawn Fratangelo said in the piece, "Most every news outlet — including our own — now has at least one."

In the world of media-watching (you're in it right now) this is not a novel piece of news. The subject has been hashed, and re-hashed, and then hashed some more. So, somewhat predictably, some bloggers have reacted to the story with nice helping of snark. Wrote Dreadpundit:
It was one of those newsbits that make you wonder in what decade the mainstream media are living. NBC ran a condescending little piece about blogs as if it were a discovery they had just made (maybe it was.) Now we're "real," we've been on the nightly news.

But in their montage of screenshots and happy patter (including a brief view of The Jawa Report's main [page] - another blog I write for) NBC anchor Brian Williams didn't mention the names of Dan Rather or Eason Jordan.
Glenn Reynolds, otherwise known as Instapundit, who was interviewed for the story, wasn't particularly impressed, but didn't exactly go for the jugular:
Well, I watched it, and I don't want to be rude to the NBC people, who were quite pleasant. But jeez, that was a 2002 story. If you hadn't heard of blogs before, I guess it was news. Otherwise, not so much. But I guess there's not a lot you can do within the confines of a roughly 2 minute news story.
But Reynolds later updated his post with a portion of an e-mail from reader Rick Lee, who argued the other side of the coin:
Well ... these stories are still needed. It seems that most of the people I come in contact with either have no idea what a blog is or they are only vaguely aware but don't read them. The word itself is very off-putting to most people. I can't tell you how many times I've talked about blogs with somebody who struggles to get the word out and then giggles after saying it... as though they had just said "poop" or something. Blogs are still far, far from mainstream in this country.
It's always nice to have someone reasonable interject. The reality in this little discussion is, of course, that when you step out of the bubble of media-watching, it's pretty obvious that the majority of the evening newscasts' audience probably aren't all that familiar with blogs – their nature, their breadth or their influence. I'm not arguing that the audience is clueless, but blogs, as Lee put it, are still "far, far from mainstream." And while growing numbers of viewers may be defecting from the evening newscasts in exchange for other outlets for news, the evening newscasts are still very, very much the mainstream. So, while to those actually within the new media bubble this story is way behind the curve, does that mean its value is entirely lost on the audience?

Add a Comment
by mikezwolf May 8, 2006 1:04 PM EDT
"Perhaps, but the MSM still leans leftward" -- repeat a lie often enough... At this point, after 8 years of witch-hunts and prurient speculation and smears followed by 5 years of sycophantic stenographing, it's not even a lie anymore. It's just a sick joke. The traditional media, with few exceptions, has let itself become a de facto propaganda arm of the Republican Party. Corruption, cronyism and incompetence on a scale that dwarfs anything ever seen? Male prostitutes in the White House? Prostitutes paid for by lobbyists for military contractors to top-ranking Republican officials, including possibly the Director of the CIA, in exchange for over $25 million in contracts? 750 'signing statements' by a President effectively shredding the constitution and saying he's above the law? Torture and disappearances as official US policy? A war based on lies and the greatest strategic disaster in US history? A crippling deficit (partly hidden by cooked books) being left for future generations? Collusion with the energy industry in setting policy contrary to US interest? Even after two-thirds of Americans have (no thanks to the lapdog media) waken up to the unmitigated disaster we have on our hands, the press keeps fawning over Bush and other Republicans and giving them political cover for the most inexcusable things. But, hey, it's not a consensual extra-marital affair (not that most top Republicans aren't known to have had those either...)
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by djman1142 May 6, 2006 12:18 PM EDT
"And while growing numbers of viewers may be defecting from the evening newscasts in exchange for other outlets for news, the evening newscasts are still very, very much the mainstream." Perhaps, but the MSM still leans leftward and the Evening News is becoming more infotainment than infotransfer. Also, when Elizabeth Vargas has Jann Wenner, a rock impresario, as Person of the Week, one wonders if it has something to do with Vargas's husband, a second-tier rock singer with higher aspirations? Even with running sores like Rather and CNN Chief Eason Jordan, agendas are being pursued by networks and cable outlets and conflicts of interest pop up unchallenged everywhere in the MSM---thank God the blogs are there as an alternative to the gatekeepers' version of what is news.
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by peterbaldwin-2009 May 5, 2006 7:05 PM EDT
After Kennedy's press conference he was asked by a Bush bootlicker if he would resign. Thank God he said no and that he would stay in the fight. This kind of thing will only propel the blogosphere to greater heights. You can't fool all the people all the time.
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by peterbaldwin-2009 May 5, 2006 6:54 PM EDT
Kennedy is going to rehab for prescribed painkiller dependency, so the story should run out of steam, but will the mainstream media let go of this bone from the gods or chew it to death at the behest of the Child Fuhrer? Shouldn't Kennedy be impeached?
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by memekiller May 5, 2006 6:25 PM EDT
Virtually every MSM outlet that ran with the Kennedy wreck asked, "Was alcohol involved?" There was some basis for thinking there might be, but as we have learned, there's also reason to believe there might have been other causes (such as prescription drugs), yet everyone kept mentioning alcohol. Yet Goss resigns mysteriously immediately after being connected to parties where prostitutes were procured for political favors, and no one is asking, "Could he be implicated in the prostitution for favors scandal being investigated by the FBI?" We get weeks of Swift Boat coverage, yet stories embarassing to Bush are held until after the election by the NYT and 60 Minutes. The reason people are turning to blogs is because they are filling the void left by a fawning press corps. How many times has Rumsfeld been on the conservative leaning panels on the Sunday morning shows without facing the tough questions raised at a public event? If Rumsfeld and Co. want to be left alone, they better only take questions from the press.
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by alphaa10-2009 May 5, 2006 6:23 PM EDT
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/05/politics/main1592486.shtml Even more to memekiller's point, why did the "AP"-sourced article above refer to CIA "intelligence failures before America's worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq"? Dear Bozos at the CBS Newsdesk-- CIA intel was not the fault which led to Iraq invasion-- Bush distortion of available evidence was. Like intel from many other agencies, the CIA product was scattered and not the best possible, but to suggest CIA "faulty information" led Bush to attack Iraq is simply false. Have you been asleep for the past three years? According to CIA analysts, Bush and Cheney cherry-picked through CIA intel for what they believed supported their invasion-to-prevent-WMD-attack rationale. The overtly political bias of Bush and Cheney led to the infamous Niger Yellowcake and Plame affair. Their politically-motivated methodology, alone, distorted the more solid intel CIA offered at the time. Bush did not want data from CIA, but a rationale for invasion, and THAT is where CIA intel was distorted from a professional property to a political property. Let us never forget Kenneth Clarke had attempted for the previous eight months to explain to Wolfowitz, Bush and Cheney what al Qaeda was all about. Hours after 911, he was told simply to find an Iraqi connection.
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by peterbaldwin-2009 May 5, 2006 6:13 PM EDT
Kennedy was never arrested (see the power of MSM suggestion); he was driven home - like in the old days. Whether he was drunk or not is already a moot point, because like Chaney, no field sobriety test or breathalyzer were done. All the Johnny come lately interviews at the local watering holes amount to squat; the opportunity to nail him for DWI has lost forever, as was the case for Chaney. Suspicion, innuendo, and second guessing, however, can live on. Let's see if the matter is pursued as nonchalantly as in the Chaney shooting.
Reply to this comment
by memekiller May 5, 2006 5:39 PM EDT
As always, when any Schmoe can have a blog, you can always find stupid snark to highlight to slander the entire enterprise. It's because it's democratic that you can find any opinion, no matter how stupid or tactless. (I haven't heard of any of the guys you mention). I am glad to see the dissension towards blog by the MSM to move from appeasing the right and whining about incivility of the left to just whining about the incivility of blogs in general. In the spirit of the occasion, I would like to offer some snark of my own: why is it you feature the #@@& bits of the Kennedy arrest, yet the surprise resignation of Peter Goss doesn't mention the fact that he's knee-deep in a prostitute-for-favors scandal? Even with the GOP polling in the thirties or less, it's up to comedians and retired CIA analysts to hold this government accountable.
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by peterbaldwin-2009 May 5, 2006 5:00 PM EDT
There is a big difference between blog poop from the blogosphere and hot air from the mainstream media. Relief is just a "click" away.
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