RealNews.com

Now the fallout from the Eason Jordan debacle begins. This will be the first of a few articles on what the MSM and journalism types are saying about bloggers. It ain't pretty! Michelle Maklin describes some of what is being printed and said about the blogosphere.

From the Sailor's point of view, the MSM and the journalism types are circling the wagons. Their once sole onwnership of disseminating information is no longer theirs and theirs alone. There is a new kid in town and he is challenging their turf. They need to get their collective acts together and start reporting the news, not covering up for their own. - Sailor

REALNEWS.COM

BY MICHELLE MALKIN
New York Post

February 14, 2005 -- GET the mainstream media some smelling salts.

The resignation of CNN executive Eason Jordan last Friday night caused near-fainting spells in the journalism world. And now the backlash against the blogosphere — the legions of Internet citizen journalists who pressured Jordan to come clean about controversial remarks he made at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 27 — has begun.

Take Bertrand Pecquerie, director of the World Editors Forum, the organization for editors within the World Association of Newspapers, please. Mourning Jordan's decision to step down, Pecquerie likened bloggers to the "sons of Senator McCarthy" and "scalps' hunters."

Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review Daily Web site, blasted Jordan's Internet critics in an e-mail to New York University professor Jay Rosen's blog PressThink (available at journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink): "The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail."

Also on Rosen's site, reader William Boykin fumed: "Jordan has just been tire-necklaced by a bloodthirsty group of utopian, bible-thumping knuckledraggers that believe themselves to be bloggers but are really just a street gang." And these unhinged heavy-breathers accuse bloggers of being a lynch mob?

The ad hominem hysterics of Jordan's defenders stand in stark contract to the way the vast majority of bloggers approached the search for truth in this matter. Veteran journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis (buzzmachine.com) got it right when he said on CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday: "We didn't want his head — most of us didn't. We wanted the truth." We're still waiting.

It was Jordan who tossed out reckless remarks about American troops deliberately targeting journalists. It was bloggers, starting with American businessman and Davos eyewitness Rony Abovitz, who asked that Jordan back up his bombshell assertion with facts.



Abovitz's courage in this matter cannot be overstated. He raised his voice against Jordan at an international forum of media bigs, political heavyweights and Europe's most influential America-haters. Abovitz's remarks prompted Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to press Jordan for details. Abovitz also received thanks from an outraged Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

It seems clear from a number of eyewitness accounts, including Rep. Frank's, that while Jordan may have backtracked, he did not completely back off — rendering his Friday night explanation that he "never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent" disingenuous at best.

After Abovitz spoke to some journalists in the audience who didn't consider Jordan's remarks news and weren't going to cover it, he bypassed the mainstream media and exposed the controversy with a simple click of the mouse.

From there, a network of bloggers — connected only by their modems — pressed the story. Minnesota-based blogger Ed Morrissey (captainsquartersblog.com), southern California blogger/talk show host/author Hugh Hewitt (hughhewitt.com), Washington, D.C.-based blogger La Shawn Barber (lashawnbarber.com), Tennessee-based blogging giant/law professor Glenn Reynolds (instapundit.com), Jarvis, Rosen and the ad hoc group blog at Easongate.com were among those who provided context for Jordan's remarks, carefully assembled facts, requested release of the videotape/transcript and forcefully challenged the mainstream media blackout of the story.

For their fine efforts, these citizen bloggers are being attacked as "morons" and "bible-thumping knuckledraggers" and "hounds" by nervous media nellies aghast at the sight of unwashed amateurs beating down effete journalism's gates. Meanwhile, CNN continues to spin.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson insists there's no dispute over what Jordan said. Yet, in a statement Jordan himself sent to his staff Friday, Jordan cited "conflicting accounts" over his remarks as a threat to CNN's credibility. Which is it?

Former CNN News Group Chairman Walter Isaacson took the opportunity to sneer at "talk-show and blogging folks" for not doing "frontline reporting" (as opposed to the rumor-mongering Jordan engaged in at Davos?). And former CNN News Group Chairman Tom Johnson, who had been Jordan's mentor, decried what he called "unjustified and almost irrational attacks on Eason's character."

The only unjustified and irrational attacks on display here are the ones against the bloggers who called on Eason Jordan to account for his words and actions. The MSM better get used to the sound of bloghounds baying. This revolution can't be unplugged.

Michelle Malkin is a Fox News Channel contributor. Her blog is at michellemalkin.com. You can access Michelle's blog from the Sailor's blogroll.