This is Epth Nation

Epth is a state of mind, not a place. Reading this will give you a virtual drivers license in that state, but you'll still need to be 21 to purchase alcohol. And you can't get any there anyway, so stop asking.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Easonzamboni, which does make sense.

I was sitting at work today doing somebody else’s job yet again, and I got to reading some blogs. There has been a lot made both positively and negatively over the advent of blogs, especially as it relates to how news is reported in this country. If you remember, CBS got into a lot of trouble during that whole National Guard Memo story, when blogs were able to flesh out the truth that CBS could not. CBS ended up firing people for running an obviously false story, and blogs were for the first time trumpeted as the wave of the future by people who weren’t just internet-information-addicts. And they are the wave of the future, mostly because Big Media has abdicated its responsibility to seek the truth, and people out there are just thirsting for it.

Remember the X-Files, and their posterized tagline of “The Truth is Out There”? That had mass appeal because people want to account for the things in life they can’t explain. They want to believe in shadowy alien and government forces controlling things from afar. But the real process of finding the truth often leads into unexpected, non-conspiratorial places that are just as bizarre and interesting. This process is what blogs were made for – people aren’t just posting opinions and speculation, they are fleshing out what they truth might be about a given situation. In the MemoGate* story, bloggers posted on how the documents appeared to have been forged with Microsoft Word, then other people who disagreed with them talked about military typewriters of the 1970’s and if they could do “kerning”. In the end, it was determined that the documents could not have been produced in the early 1970’s which was a bummer to CBS because that’s when they were dated. Then the question could be asked, “Why did CBS not figure this out ahead of time?” The bloggers helped with that, too. The best current influential media blogs are like a giant panel discussion, only one whose members are actually trying to get to the truth and not just advocating a particular cause or ideology. This should scare the crap out of a bunch of people who could formerly manipulate the media into looking the other way when things got too hot.

And don’t think that this is just another form of conservative talk radio, with one person’s Hot Opinions about whatever subject tickles his/her fancy. This is news gathering first, and discussion of what it means second. This is not a blanket affirmation of all blogs, btw. Some of them are as opinionated as anything you’d find on “Hannity & Colmes”, meaning some of them are just reactionary dunderheads. Do not judge the rest based upon this. Plus, there is an inherent fact-checking system with blogs called other bloggers.

There has been a lot of talk among bloggers lately about the comments of CNN News Chief Eason Jordan at some media conference somewhere in Europe. Several earwitnesses, including 2 Democratic US Congressmen, heard Jordan assert that 12 journalists have been targeted and killed by the US military. He didn’t have any evidence of this when the rest of the media panel (including US Rep. Barney Frank, a total Democratic hack, who said (even) he was “agog” and “incensed” by the Jordan comments) questioned him about it, but eyewitnesses reported several European and Middle Eastern people coming up to him afterward and applauding him for his courage. He was clearly playing to the European crowd, and Big Media (including, not surprisingly, CNN) was going to just let it pass.

Then the blogs got wind of it, and all of a sudden the story was everywhere. And CNN, who along with Jordan have some ‘splainin’ to do, had their media columnist Howard Kurtz do damage control with Jordan’s side of the story, which includes his lies about the circumstances of the statements (I am comfortable saying “lies” because every single eyewitness that has come out about the statements has been consistent with the original story, and has refuted Jordan’s side). There is a coverup going on now, and the reported videotape of the conference is not being released by the people who have it. Nobody at CNN is calling for the release of the tape, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything except they’re eager for the story to go away. That’s the shocking thing: The CNN News Chief asserts that the US Military has murdered journalists, and Big Media wants the story left alone. The blogs, however, smell blood, and it’s only a matter of time before the Truth comes out. See Hugh Hewitt's coverage here, and look for "Easongate".

*Curse the Baby Boomers for making every scandal end in –gate. I wish that hotel had been the “Waterzamboni”, because that would be much more fun to append to everything.

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