CNN and Blogging Pundits

February 16th, 2005 at 20:15 Björn Hallberg

The Australian refers to it as Blog pundits claim CNN scalp, NBR sees it as a New media swarm takes down old media CNN news boss. Eason Jordan chose to step down after a storm of  mostly online pundits raving over his alleged statement. I.e. that the US military deliberately targeted and targets reporters in Iraq, having killed a dozen or so in various murky incidents. How right he is … and how quickly he paid the price for his honesty and clear-sightedness. I find it extremely ironic how people, bloggers continue to bash the offline or mainstream media regardless of events. I am myself sceptical of a more or less government controlled media, one shaped by the hegemony of the contemporary world, but that doesn’t mean they are always wrong by definition.

I’m worried about this trend. The media bashing that is. And the fact that the principles of the old, perverted system is spreading like decease through this new online community, the blogosphere or whatever. What does it matter if Fox News or some neo-con online blog do the bidding of the masters in Washington. It’s all the same.
And jumping the gun to kill the mainstream media, even those outlets that are doing their job, trying to get to the bottom of things is foolhardy. I can understand that a few extremist neo-con lapdogs were attacking Jordan but I have a hard time seeing what anyone else would have to gain from joining in the fray. They probably thought it  was a worthwhile cause, getting even with the mainstream media that fails to take them seriously, but in the end they just sealed their own tomb.
Bottom line, Jordan’s statement, however the exact phrasing might have been, is revealing and needs to be taken seriously. It shows he is "one of us", "one of the good guys" if you will and that we has thought a great deal about the situation.

Also … blogging isn’t for blogging’s sake.

CNet also has a slightly narrow-minded piece about Source protection a blogger’s right? which is somewhat related to this matter. Declan McCullagh thanks bloggers for trashing reporter’s privileges. Another really tough matter to judge. But I don’t see why the privileges couldn’t be extended for bloggers as well. But it goes to prove how much animosity there is between the old and the new media forms. Something that the powers that be will surely use to make sure that everything goes their way.

Entry 32 filed under: Media. This entry was posted 3 years, 9 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.