Rambling Rhodes

Thinking About Blogs

So, I'm watching all the archeological turnover of the network news fossils, such as Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, and I got to thinking about something.

Dan Rather, quite probably, saw his twilight years forever besmirched by a throng of pajama-clad anklebiters who just happened to notice that he relied on obviously forged documents to augment an "investigative" report. He then later went on to criticize the "blogging machine" for running rampant with leaked early exit polls, even though those polls were leaked by folks within the established media.

Then there's Tom Brokow who--although he himself wasn't chopped off at the knees by alert pajamahadeen--did at one point say bloggers amounted to "political jihad."

I have a problem with such a dismissive attitude towards blogs, and not simply because I'm a blogger. I certainly don't equate myself with the amazing bloggers who sniffed out forged memos within hours of a broadcast. Hell, the epitome of my online sleuthing only helped to expose a 30+ year old man masquerading as a bi-sexual Web diarist. Hardly Pulitzer-level investigation.

But blogs, to me, represent a growing influence that acts as a sorely needed check on the mainstream media. Prior to blogs, your best chance to be heard by Dan Rather would be to call CBS and listen to Muzak for four hours only to leave a message with an underling that was never returned. Or, you could write a letter to the editor, only to have a newspaper edit your words, at best, or not run it at all, at worst.

Now, with blogs, if you have something you want to vent, you can vent it, or if you smell bullshit, you can yell "BULLSHIT!" If you think Trent Lott said some pretty racist-sounding things, you can write about it and whip up such an online froth that the man steps down as Senate majority leader.

I can see why the likes of Rather and Brokaw can't understand the value of bloggers. To them, the idea that somebody tapping on a laptop while taking a crap could produce a thought-provoking post that can whip its way around the globe within hours and actually become a type of news is positively terrifying. From where I sit, however, it's one of the most self-empowering tools to emerge in this high technology age.

It wouldn't be bothering me so much because, after all, Brokaw and Rather are on their way out, and Jennings will no doubt be close behind. But then, you have people like Bill O'Reilly saying things like:

The reason these net people get away with all kinds of stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up with no restraints. This, of course, is dangerous, but it symbolizes what the Internet is becoming.

It's that nasty old free speech thing that O'Reilly just can't condone.

Or you have Brian Williams saying something like bloggers are:

on an equal footing with someone in a bathroom with a modem.

I don't know. I guess it would be nice if so-called young blood like Williams had a better understanding of just how powerful bloggers are right now, and just how powerful they're going to be in a few more years. As a single unit, a blog isn't much, but when you get a few hundred or thousand galvanized together sniffing out a bogus story, they can be more powerful than any network news outlet.

You'd think they'd start to realize that.

Posted by Ryan at December 1, 2004 04:24 PM