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Faulking Around - Mar 30, 2005 - Printable Version
- The Flogging of America
by Mark Faulk
In response to the all-out assault that bloggers have waged on them, the so-called "major media" did what any self-respecting pioneers would do when attacked - they circled up the wagons and began to fire wildly into the darkness, hoping to somehow fend off their attackers because, well, they're the chosen ones, and they've always been the chosen ones. Attack! Attack! Shortly after the 2004 election, CBS wrote a vindictive little piece about the blogosphere called "Blogging as Typing, Not Journalism". www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/08/opinion/main654285.shtml Zing! Whew, those guys are clever. Here's what they had to say about those who of us who write because we are passionate about it, and not because we bring down a couple of mil a year from some corporate-owned dinosaur of a newspaper or television network, after many bloggers picked Kerry to win the election based on exit polls (of course, there was no mention of the voter fraud scandal that the Major Media itself largely ignored):
"When you the humble reporter are writing a story based on the polls you need one of these gurus standing over your shoulder interpreting what they mean or you almost certainly will screw it up. There is a word for this kind of teamwork and expertise. It’s called 'journalism.'
You did not see any of the networks or the AP put out misleading reports of a Kerry lead nationally – or in the battleground states of Florida or Ohio. The editors, producers and executives who run these MSM organizations, in typical responsible, dinosaur fashion, know it would be wrong to do so. As professional journalists, they understand the limitations of this kind of polling."
Mmmhmm. Aren't these the same "professional journalists" who announced that Gore won the 2000 election, only to retract it a few hours later? Did this so-called "humble reporter" forget about the tiny little 60 Minutes faux pas on the forged George Bush national Guard letter, the same scandal that helped to bring down the Godfather of TV News, Dan Rather? Where was the "teamwork and expertise" when Dan was being hung out to dry by.....you guessed it, the bloggers. I mean, c'mon people, you guys have been getting it wrong since Dewey beat Truman way back in 1944.
This "unbiased" reporter goes on to say this about the future of blogging:
"One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on."
Well, at least he described mainstream journalists as dogs, and flea-bitten mongrels at that. While Corporate Media tries to dismiss bloggers as irrelevant in one breath and steals all of their major stories from the internet in the next, a judge in California tries to decide whether or not those of us in the internet trenches are journalists or just a general pain in the ass. Interestingly enough, at the same time the Corporate Media has denigrated and dismissed as irrelevant the impact that blogs have already made on the world of journalism, nearly every major "news" source has added their own version of a blog (or a "Flog", a "Fake weblog", as the fine people at www.whatreallyhappened.com so aptly phrased it) to their internet presence. I wonder what will happen if the courts rule that bloggers AREN'T journalists, and demand that NBC, FOX News, CNN, and every traditional newspaper in America who has their own blog reveal all of THEIR sources. Oh wait, those aren't REAL blogs, they're Flogs. I almost forgot. Because they're real journalists. Real journalists with fake blogs.
For those of you who aren't yet familiar with the Blogosphere, let me bring you into "Our Universe". A "blog" is short for a Weblog, and is defined in Webster's New Millineum Dictionary as either "an online journal" or "a personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the user". In other words, if you have a computer and an opinion, you too can be a blogger. Don't like how the country is being run? Write about it, and send it off into the void of cyberspace, and see if there's anyone else out there who shares your opinion. Think that the Bush-controlled media is just a wee bit biased? Tell us your version of the truth, and see if anyone agrees with you. It's really that simple, and with a little luck, and a minimum of talent, you might even attract a few readers. We started The Faulking Truth ("we" being myself and three or four other naive suckers who I conned into coming along for "Mr. Faulk's Wild Ride") with the hopes of convincing a few friends to log on and listen to our often disjointed tirades. Now, one year later, we're about to break 175,000 hits for this month alone. I have to confess, I didn't think there were that many equally neurotic people in all of cyberspace. It's a humbling experience, and a little disturbing at the same time (All these people think WE have something relevant to say? What does that say about the world in general, and our readers in particular?).
As usual, I digress....or maybe not. Maybe the fact that a few independent-minded individuals with a bit of a gift for saying what they think can attract a reasonable audience and in some small way affect public opinion IS the point here. There are over eight million blogs worldwide, and almost 30% of those on the internet read blogs. We are here to stay, and there's nothing that threatens Corporate America more than the empowerment of the "little guy". They can't shut us down with a simple court ruling that renders the Bill of Rights obsolete. Why? Because we don't care about their stinking Freedom of the Press. We're bloggers, and bloggers are like cockroaches, cockroaches with computer skills. Kill off one of us, and a hundred more will climb out of the cyberwoodwork. Spray us with BlogRid, and we'll just mutate into a more resistant, stronger strain of bloggers.
It's time for Corporate Media to accept us, no, embrace us, because if they don't, we'll take them down. You've already seen it time and again, and now, blogs are beating the FOX Newses and CNNs to the punch on nearly every important story. Don't believe me? Watch the Big Boys jump all over the "Stockgate" story that The Faulking Truth and a couple of other online journals have been following for over a year. We've been telling everyone who would listen about this forever (or so it seems), and then, after all of us have toiled in relative obscurity month after month, the major media will swoop in and lay claim to the story as if they discovered it themselves. Well, guess what? They did "discover it themselves", by doing the same thing that every major news source is doing these days.....trolling the internet like a bunch of overpriced hookers, and stealing their ideas from the bloggers. And that, fellow bloglodytes, is the Faulking Truth.
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