Thursday, March 11, 2004
Instapundit runs half-naked, half-baked and half-cocked through the streets
Well, it has come to that time. It must be said. One of the emperors is rather shoddily clothed. The current articles on the spread of information on the web and through weblogs put this point front and center.
I imagine that some will dismiss what I have to say as simply partisan quibbling but I think this goes a little beyond that. I kind of think that the omissions I am about to expose amount to a lack of intellectual honesty.
No quibbling, Glenn Reynolds is a smart man. Which makes this all the more hard and also all the more damning. He has maintained a premier position in the blogging world. To a large extent, “arriving” in the blog world has meant a mention at Instapundit.com.
One of the items ranking high on the blog indices today concerns a posting about Murdoch’s NYPost story on the furor surrounding Bush’s 9/11 ads. You know something is up when he refers to the Post as the mainstream press. And of course as soon as that point is raised the response will be that it is at least as legitimate as Jason Blair and the NYTimes. Well, there is a notable difference between the Times and most of Murdoch’s tabloids. When the writers at those tabloids pick up their checks, everybody (with the possible exception of the readers) knows they have been lying.
So the Post story, that Glenn is quoting, goes on about the “morally detestable” position of some 9/11 victims’ survivors of not wanting to see other families suffer similar losses: perhaps not the right time in history, but quite understandable. These people were deeply wounded, not traitors: for some the pain so heavy they want to reek great vengeance on those even remotely involved, for others the grief so great they wish it for no one. It is just one of those differences that keeps humanity interesting and exciting.
But the Post is on a mission. And Glenn is co-pilot, according to him the blogoshere already knew.
So as proof of their assertions, the Post drags out testimony from the director of the Center for Consumer Freedom about the Tides Foundation before a Republican controlled congressional committee . The CCF maintains that the other group is just a front. Man, lobbyists that live in glass houses… shoo.
The CCF is a shill for a large number of industry and business groups. This is such a hokey example of an expert opinion to trot out that it boggles the mind. The CCF’s relationship to the phrase consumer freedom could only exist in the doublespeak mind of the current crop of conservatives. But Glenn can be excused, in interviews he seems to be in denial about what a big fat public relations vehicle Tech Central Station, his other employer, has been. According to Glenn, the articles in TCS supporting the publisher’s pr clients just happen to be a coincidence. Okay, the opinions and the paycheck are just a coincidence. Right.
More on this tomorrow and also…. THE WANTON WOMAN OF WIDGETS.
¶ 3/11/2004 02:10:00 AM
I imagine that some will dismiss what I have to say as simply partisan quibbling but I think this goes a little beyond that. I kind of think that the omissions I am about to expose amount to a lack of intellectual honesty.
No quibbling, Glenn Reynolds is a smart man. Which makes this all the more hard and also all the more damning. He has maintained a premier position in the blogging world. To a large extent, “arriving” in the blog world has meant a mention at Instapundit.com.
One of the items ranking high on the blog indices today concerns a posting about Murdoch’s NYPost story on the furor surrounding Bush’s 9/11 ads. You know something is up when he refers to the Post as the mainstream press. And of course as soon as that point is raised the response will be that it is at least as legitimate as Jason Blair and the NYTimes. Well, there is a notable difference between the Times and most of Murdoch’s tabloids. When the writers at those tabloids pick up their checks, everybody (with the possible exception of the readers) knows they have been lying.
So the Post story, that Glenn is quoting, goes on about the “morally detestable” position of some 9/11 victims’ survivors of not wanting to see other families suffer similar losses: perhaps not the right time in history, but quite understandable. These people were deeply wounded, not traitors: for some the pain so heavy they want to reek great vengeance on those even remotely involved, for others the grief so great they wish it for no one. It is just one of those differences that keeps humanity interesting and exciting.
But the Post is on a mission. And Glenn is co-pilot, according to him the blogoshere already knew.
So as proof of their assertions, the Post drags out testimony from the director of the Center for Consumer Freedom about the Tides Foundation before a Republican controlled congressional committee . The CCF maintains that the other group is just a front. Man, lobbyists that live in glass houses… shoo.
The CCF is a shill for a large number of industry and business groups. This is such a hokey example of an expert opinion to trot out that it boggles the mind. The CCF’s relationship to the phrase consumer freedom could only exist in the doublespeak mind of the current crop of conservatives. But Glenn can be excused, in interviews he seems to be in denial about what a big fat public relations vehicle Tech Central Station, his other employer, has been. According to Glenn, the articles in TCS supporting the publisher’s pr clients just happen to be a coincidence. Okay, the opinions and the paycheck are just a coincidence. Right.
More on this tomorrow and also…. THE WANTON WOMAN OF WIDGETS.
¶ 3/11/2004 02:10:00 AM
