Posted on 07/24/2008 7:40:50 AM PDT by 300magnum
Republicans have no lack of would-be George F. Wills.
But what they really need are some more Robert D. Novaks.
The distinction between the two prominent conservative journalists isn't always obvious, but it's nevertheless important to understand: One almost exclusively writes opinion pieces, while the other offers reportage with a point of view.
The same might be said of the emerging differences between the conservative presence on the Internet and the liberal one: The right is engaged in the business of opining while the left features sites that offer a more reportorial model.
At first glance, these divergent approaches might not seem consequential. But as the 2008 campaign progresses, its becoming increasingly clear that the absence of any websites on the right devoted to reportingas opposed to just commenting on the newsis proving politically costly to Republicans.
While conservatives are devoting much of their Internet energy to analysis, their counterparts on the left are taking advantage of the rise of new media to create new institutions devoted to unearthing stories, putting new information into circulation and generally crowding the space traditionally taken by traditional media. And it almost always comes at the expense of GOP politicians.
While online Republicans chase the allure of punditry and commentary, Democrats and progressives are pursuing old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting, in a fashion reminiscent of 2004. Back then, the Drudge Report and other lesser-known conservative portals played a key role in defining John Kerry and pushing back against criticism of George W. Bush such as when conservative bloggers debunked documents purportedly related to the presidents Air National Guard service.
Just as Drudge and critics of the now-infamous 60 Minutes report on Bush were able to push stories damaging to Kerry or beneficial to Bush into the mainstream media, liberal online organs are now doing the same,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The author probably doesn’t have time for FR after visiting DU or KOS.
I don’t think Juan “The Maverick” is helping matters either.
Huffington Post rotted the author’s mind, I think.
Drudge broke Rathergate? Well, he certainly helped to spread it, but I don’t think he broke it.
I notice that the writer can only offer one very minor example of how the left wing blogs “broke” a story. Gee, McCain misspoke—and I must confess I never even heard about it. What an important story! Almost like the 57 states visited by Obama, or the ten years he expects to spend running our country—into the ground.
Upstream, downstream. I’d say Politico is pretty far downstream in the leftist mediaverse, although I do vaguely recall one or two stories that the clintons released through them during the early primaries.
Who did?
will and novak are right about things about once a month. This jerk is fooling himself.
what about the stories on BHO’s birt certificate?
This author makes no sense.
Sitting around making up stories and swearing at clones who aren’t towing the line is “news reporting” ?
Free Republic was here before anybody heard of bloggers, Daily Kaos, DU or HuffAndPuff Post. The author of this piece should have known that but he was probably still in diapers at the time.
Who knew.
So how does this dingbat think any right-wing webs sites are supposed to get their reporting to air to the masses? Talk radio is obviously not enough.
The left has the monopoly, their liberal propaganda cartel is worldwide and extremely powerful.
PUKE. Clean up on article in post #1.
This author has no clue.
I would worry more about the absence of conservatives in electoral politics.
Great, Novak just ran a pedestrian, as reported on Fox last night.
Gaff's are made by all candidates and there are embarrassing moments for EVERY campaign. This is far different from what the swiftboaters revealed about Kerry.
Frankly, Obama is so well-liked revealing the petty mistakes, will blow up in the faces of Republicans.
Better to focus upon comments like 'Americans should learn Spanish, but the Spanish immigrants shouldn't have to learn English,' and his lies about his changing positions on the surge, as well as the practical effect his Marxist policies will have on the lives of average Americans and the positive reasons to vote for McCain (yes, there are some), as difficult as that may be.
btt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.