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Journalists need watchdogs too
Washington Examiner ^ | 2/14/05 | Washington Examiner

Posted on 02/16/2005 11:41:30 AM PST by no_apathy

Mark this date on your calendar: Feb. 11, 2005. This was the day when the nation's big-time media finally realized they don't own exclusive rights to the First Amendment. And they are not happy. On Friday night, CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan resigned, pursued by a band of bloggers intent on finding out whether Jordan really accused the U.S. military of murdering journalists in his talk at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

As long as old-media institutions react to the blogosphere with such contempt, they'll never be able to understand what is going on. Indeed, the old-media doesn't recognize journalism when it literally smacks them in the head. When left-wing bloggers took down the Talon News reporter, they did it the old fashioned way - they got ahold of records and published the contents for all to see. Talon News was not brought low by bloggers, but by reporting.

The same is true of CNN. When the press wants information that others wish to keep private, they resemble nothing less than a slavering pack of wolves. Guess what? The blogs act in exactly the same way. They wanted information. CNN wanted to hide it. And the blogs won because they weren't going to go away until all the facts came out. Again, this is journalism pure and simple.

If the world's "real journalists" see the blogs as "salivating morons who make up the lynch mob," that's because it is exactly what "real journalists" look like when we are hot after a story. Ask a CEO whose had to face the press chasing him down over some accounting issue. Ask a politician who has had to deal with the rumor of sexual impropriety. The words "lynch mob" and "salivating morons" will trip right off his lips.

(Excerpt) Read more at dcexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blogstorm; cnn; easonjordoan; msm; oldmedia
This is a really great op-ed piece on the Eason Jordan; CNN affair.
1 posted on 02/16/2005 11:41:43 AM PST by no_apathy
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To: no_apathy

LOL.....can you see Howie Kurtz now......crying No Mas No Mas......


2 posted on 02/16/2005 11:57:57 AM PST by OldFriend (America's glory is not dominion, but liberty.)
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To: no_apathy

I heard that Eason Jordan goes to gay bars and moonlights as a prostitute


3 posted on 02/16/2005 12:14:43 PM PST by cake_crumb (Leftist Credo: "One Wing to Rule Them all and to the Dark Side Bind Them")
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To: no_apathy

It's true. Journalists just don't like being treated the way they have always treated others. The day of accountability is here, and there will be a lot fewer journalists in the future, but the ones who survive will be good ones.


4 posted on 02/16/2005 12:24:38 PM PST by McGavin999
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To: no_apathy

Wonderful realization.


5 posted on 02/16/2005 12:27:59 PM PST by Spirited
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To: no_apathy

This is all a part of the on-going information and communication revolution.

Everybody can write; everybody can do spreadsheet; everybody can search; everybody can learn, invest, stay healthy. The people who used to own these turfs naturally don't like it and are going to go down clawing, scratching and screaming. They don't know how to change; they were never given the option, choices to exercise. They just did what somebody above them told them what to do -- but convinced them they were "free" to obey.

The hierarchic, authoritarian personalities are being challenged, and they don't know how to respond when their old intimidation tactics no longer work. It is the most frightening experience in their lives to push somebody around as they were pushed around, and realize somebody is looking back curiously, wondering what it is they think they are doing. It is as though some are seeing God for the first time ever -- and realize all those sins of the past really do matter.


6 posted on 02/16/2005 2:22:51 PM PST by MikeHu
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