Wednesday, February 09, 2005
The Next Step On Jordan
Powerline asks tonight, "Where Do We Go From Here?" regarding the Eason Jordan Story. They point to an interesting NRO piece by Jim Geraghty.
As this story has progressed through the blogosphere, I have been pondering a related question. We seem to have tremendous ability to at least make something an issue or story that might otherwise not have seen the light of day. We also appear to have some destructive capability. Geraghty points out that the blogosphere cannot take full credit for Christmas in Cambodia, or Lott, or Rather -- though it's contributions were quite significant.
My question is this, tearing down MSM is only part of the issue -- how do we replace them? At some point we just sound like yapping dogs with the "MSM bad" stuff. Right now the traffic comes from proving them wrong -- How do we prove ourselves right? How do we move from being the fact and bias checkers to being the news providers?
The blogosphere may have made the Rather and Jordan stories, but they are reactive, "MSM bad" stories, and we considered victory achieved when those stories made it to MSM. I for one would rather replace MSM than build a story to the point they they get it. I would rather have people looking to us first, as opposed to the place they turn when things in the MSM seem a little out of kilter. How do we get there?
As this story has progressed through the blogosphere, I have been pondering a related question. We seem to have tremendous ability to at least make something an issue or story that might otherwise not have seen the light of day. We also appear to have some destructive capability. Geraghty points out that the blogosphere cannot take full credit for Christmas in Cambodia, or Lott, or Rather -- though it's contributions were quite significant.
My question is this, tearing down MSM is only part of the issue -- how do we replace them? At some point we just sound like yapping dogs with the "MSM bad" stuff. Right now the traffic comes from proving them wrong -- How do we prove ourselves right? How do we move from being the fact and bias checkers to being the news providers?
The blogosphere may have made the Rather and Jordan stories, but they are reactive, "MSM bad" stories, and we considered victory achieved when those stories made it to MSM. I for one would rather replace MSM than build a story to the point they they get it. I would rather have people looking to us first, as opposed to the place they turn when things in the MSM seem a little out of kilter. How do we get there?
