Posted on 09/16/2004 10:42:21 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
“Whoa,” I hear you cry. “Why should I read anything about a ‘Pukin Dog’?” This is an honorable name, the nickname of a squadron of Navy fighter pilots who flew combat in Vietnam. Now it is the screen name of a man who flew for that unit in Central Europe. He’s currently a pilot for a major American airline.
Both he and his airline will remain anonymous, because he thinks some might take offense at his words. I’ll respect his confidence. Besides, on the Internet it doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is. The only questions are: Do you have your facts straight? And, based on those facts, is your analysis logical?
What is the history of manifestos? The accurate ones represent major and permanent changes in human history. Martin Luther with his 95 Theses nailed on the church door in 1517 changed religions forever. Galileo, with his observations before 1633 that the Earth moved around the Sun, forever changed astronomy and science in general. The Framers of America forever changed history and politics with their manifesto entitled “the Declaration of Independence” in 1776.
Not all manifestos are favorable. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 was ultimately responsible for dozens of failed governments and tens of millions of deaths. And its pernicious effects are declining, but have not yet ended.
My friend Pukin Dog did not write about anything so massive as war and peace. He wrote about the future of communications. Still, what he described is every bit as important as the invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1450s. It has the same consequence, taking communications from the hands of the “priestly” class and delivering them to all citizens without discrimination. Here is part of what the Dog wrote:
“Open Letter to the Main Stream Media:
“We are not amateurs and we are going to kick your butts.
“We have watched you for years try to tell us how to think, what to think, who to vote for and what to believe based solely on your own agenda. In past years, you have come to think of yourselves as the fourth branch of government, the movers and shapers of opinion and the arbiters of truth.
“In case you have not been watching, America is sick and tired of you. We are turning away from you in record numbers. Your audience and readership is declining faster than you can say the word 'bias', and instead of recognizing the trend, you have only become further entrenched and determined to force society to play by your rules.
“Technology has allowed us to ignore you, and in many cases, replace you altogether. I grew up watching Walter Cronkite every night, not yet aware of his agenda, his bias and his overwhelming desire to turn the nation against its leaders unless they agreed with him. I saw him replaced by the most dishonest, agenda-driven anchorman this nation has ever produced. That Dan Rather is one of you should be enough to make you feel dirty....
“You believe yourselves to be solely qualified to pontificate on the day-to-day events going on around the world as if journalism school gives you a special insight into the truth. When I was in college, people went to J-school only if they flunked out of business school and did not want to become teachers.
“Well guess what? The world is on to you.
“Persons with knowledge and experience are not only ignoring you, but replacing you as sources of information. These sources, which don't need anything but their personal experiences and skills when sharing information with the public; persons who have spent more time learning and doing than you ever will, are generally more accurate and informative than you know how to be.
“The Internet and Blogosphere would scare you, if you were smart enough or honest enough to know better.
“People with practical knowledge and experience discussing current and historical events with more ability than you, are sharing more factual and in-depth information, and at a rate which you could never compete. We are relegating many of you to overpaid gossip mongers, while you don't want to acknowledge that we are eating your lunch.
“You take polls, trying to convince us of what people are thinking as you have always done, but now, knowledgeable people are analyzing your methodology, your weighing and sampling and pointing out if your polls are to be believed. You can no longer expect what you say to be taken for gospel, because we are no longer amateurs about information. Someone, somewhere on a little web site is going to smoke you out, report your biases, and make you less believable than you once were. Count on it....
“I'm writing this, because I know you are watching. Just as you watched last week when one of us 'amateurs' beat you at your own game. It happens here all the time. Free Republic is not a group of 'amateurs' or nutcases, as you like to think of us. This board is a slice of America, filled with people from all walks of life, whose cumulative knowledge dwarfs that of you and your 'hired experts'. I was offended to read your reaction to people here and at the Blogs who shared what started here regarding your fraudulent flunky Dan Rather, and his attempt to pass off what was clearly a forged document as legitimate news.
“You attempted to deride us, not take us seriously, dismiss us as partisans (which is apparently only a bad thing if one is conservative) and generally ignore the wealth of information we passed along to the public about one of yours trying to pull the wool over our eyes. We nailed Dan Rather, not you, and you can't stand it....
“It is only going to get worse for you.
“You can no longer tell us anything, and expect to be believed without question. You can no longer mix your agendas into your 'news' and expect to get away with it. We may not catch you every time, but eventually we will, and then many of you are going to have to get real jobs. And when you do, you are going to need more than the ability to mislead, lie, slander and ignore people who don't agree with you. In the future, expect for Blogs like Instapundit and others to be on you like a fly on stink when you attempt to mislead us....
“You want to call Bush AWOL, but you don't want to talk about his hundreds of flying hours in a jet that has killed lesser aviators, you only want to discuss what furthers your agenda, because you know that when Democrats win, YOU are in charge. You don't want to talk about our President's Master's Degree from Harvard while at the same time Al Gore could not hack Divinity school.
“Don't you wish you could regulate us? We know you spend your nights praying to the gods of the Fairness Doctrine, hoping to silence us. Sorry, but we are here, and we are not going anywhere. Too bad we can't say the same for you. It is you who is being silenced as your audience is paying more attention to us, and tuning you OUT. Fox News is in 50 million fewer homes, but they managed to beat you silly during the Republican Convention. How did that happen? US; that's how. Because of us, the Internet, the Blogosphere, Talk Radio and others, the nation no longer see you as the gatekeepers of information....
“You might actually learn something from us merry bands of 'amateur' journalists. You see, we don't have an audience to please. We don't have to sell ad-space, or get face-lifts to keep our jobs. That leaves us free to share information on the subjects we might know a little something about without angering our liberal masters. On Free Republic, you can at times find as many threads angry at Republicans as you can Democrats. We don't have to hire experts, if we don't know something, we can ask a fellow FReeper or use Google, much faster than you can pay someone to tell you what you want to hear.
“On Free Republic alone, there are experts in many fields. We have writers, poets, engineers, aviators, artists, journalists, (they keep that on the down-low), lawyers, historians, teachers, politicians, current and former members of all branches of the military; all who actually know what they are talking about without having a script (or DNC talking points) shoved in their face.
“The choice is yours, MSM. You can join us in working to share information with a hungry audience, or you can be replaced. We don't need Nielson, just a web site and an idea. Instead of insulting the remainder of your dwindling viewers, readers and listeners, why don't you just agree to cut the crap, stop the parroting of the NY Times long enough to do your own work, and finally decide to become REAL journalists again.
“I'm not saying we are journalists; we have jobs and careers beyond 'he-said-she-said'. We do like to share what we know, and we don't even get it right every time. However, the truth is in the numbers. We have them and they are growing, while yours are shrinking more rapidly every day. If you don't change your ways and soon, you are going to become irrelevant before this decade is over. Many of you already are. We only tune in to 'Petah' Jennings to watch him bravely strain to keep his composure whenever he has to report a Democrat election defeat. On a good night Chris Matthews total viewership barely equals the number of viewers on the Oxygen network.
“The trends are in our favor. If you don't wise up, we will kick your agenda-driven *sses.
“I'm Pukin Dog.”
That’s the longest quote I’ve ever used from any source. But you need a good dose of the Dog’s words to feel the power. This sea change in American media and communications began with Post No. 47 by Buckhead at 11:59:43 PM EST on 8 September, 2004, about the next day’s New York Times article on the CBS “Killian Memos.” Buckhead, who also chooses to keep his privacy, raised the question of whether these memos were forgeries, and suggested examining the typefaces.
Here’s the link where that thread took place. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210662/posts?page=47#47 Within 12 hours, it was solidly established that they were forgeries. Meanwhile Dan Rather had used his “editorial control” to force all of CBS to fall in line and refuse to reexamine these forgeries. That’s why Rather is now finished and CBS is badly damaged.
But more than that is involved here. There has been a shift in power between the Old Media and the New Media. Here’s the link where Dog’s manifesto was published, and discussed. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1213567/posts?q=1&&page=1
Almost everyone who reads my columns is Internet-adept. To you I say, print out just three copies of this article, and HAND it to three people you know who deal in communications but don’t live on the Internet. Those are the folks who most need to read the Manifesto of Pukin Dog. Absent some warning, not too long from now they will get run over like a turtle on the Interstate. It isn’t a pretty prospect.
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About the Author: John Armor is a civil rights attorney who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. CongressmanBillybob@earthlink.net
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bttt
bookmarked.
Must read Ping..................
I'm pumped, revved and excited. I've got goose bumps in places I never knew I could get them!!!
Go get 'em, Congressman...we're with you.
Told ya it was awesome, didn't I?
FReepers have been hammering affiliates of SeeBS around the country.
I do think this had a lot to do with Dans "Apology".
The messages probably went something like this, You guys have got to do something, this story is killing us out here!
I have a feeling that Menken would be having a high old time with this story.
bump
John / Billybob
Thank you sir,
you have made my day, my week, well... you can't imagine how I feel
while my part here is small
I've never been more happy to be a part of it than now
and best of all-while being an American
that said-and with boots on...
let's ROLL!
ping
ping
Have you recieved any replies from shareholders?
If you are a Current USAF Member, USAF Vet or just an Air Force groupie, freepmail me to get on this ping list.
Pukin Dog, I stand in awe. A great read!
Congressman Billybob, thanks for a great post. Well done!
CBB--another fine column, one which will be looked on by the future as describing a turning point in how information is processed and disseminated by the crashing of institutional media barriers caused by technological advances.
Pukin Dog---you have hit the nail squarely on the head.Well said and well crafted. Just the right amount of edginess.You have correctly caught the huge shift in media control of information that has occurred.
And you have accurately captured the point about how many smart folks we have here from all walks of life that share their insights and experiences.
Fellow Freepers--it has been an honor to be on FreeRepublic with all of you, from the March for Justicein Oct. '98 onwards.We have come such a long way.Thanks to Jim Robinson for leading the way.
Let's pat each other on the back---and get back to the hard work of fighting for the future of our beloved Republic.
Us USAF types normally hang out at the air-conditioned O' Club. If the ground pounders need a bomb dropped down an air shaft, precision close air support or a pilot rescued from behind enemy lines, call us. Someone is bound to be sober enough to fly.
Pu$$y.
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