[mdlug-discuss] [mdlug] Is MS bribing bloggers?

[allen]

Ingles, Raymond wrote:
>  Yeah, that was stupid. It was also quickly exposed as such. And it served as a
> handy distraction from the fact that no one's been able to substantiate Bush's
> Guard service to any significant degree.
>
>   
Ah, a point of agreement. More then that though, it was phenomenally 
arrogant.

It's unreasonable to blame simple incompetence or inexperience. Everyone 
involved had *way* too much time on the job for either to be a 
reasonable explanation. The temptation to serve political ends overcame 
Sagan's dictum and arrogance precluded consideration of professional 
repercussions.

Also, the episode wasn't *just* exposed, it was exposed by amateurs with 
no experience or resources, not competing professionals with plenty of 
both. Given the importance of the story that bespeaks a remarkably 
uninterested profession. For either ethical or professional reasons 
other members of the journalistic profession should have been on the 
story like flies on a turd. But they weren't. If it wasn't for "just 
folks" Dan Rather might have skated away from the punishment for his 
unprofessional conduct in the same way Walter Cronkite managed to a 
couple of decades earlier.

Also, why is distraction from nothing, handy? Remember, no evidence just 
rumors, clumsy forgery and ethically challenged news people.

The delightful irony is that even the rumors are now emasculated 
courtesy of an over-zealous Democratic activist and over-eager media 
professionals. Who says there's no justice?

>> More recently there's the illusive Iraqi police lieutenant 
>> that AP has grown fond of.
>>     
>
>  You didn't read up on the followup there, did you?
>
>  http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2006/12/michelle_malkin.html
>
>   
( Majikthise? She's a fetching blossom but claiming some part of her 
anatomy to be endowed with magical powers? I suppose I'll have to take 
that on faith.)

Which is both long on triumph, short on Iraqi police lieutenants and 
completely ignores AP's single-sourcing a controversial story with 
nothing in the way of justification for extending this source a lick of 
credence.
>> Dipping back into the past a bit there's CNN's deep concern with their 
>> Iraqi employees which resulted in CNN becoming a defacto arm of the 
>> Iraqi Ministry of Information.
>>     
>
>  I'm gonna need a bit more specific of a cite than this.
>
>   
I'll see your majicthise, so to speak, and raise you a SusanShelley:

http://www.extremeink.com/susan/cnn.htm

That ought to be enough detail to refresh your memory and also to put 
you on the trail of more substantive commentary if you choose to pursue it.

>> I believe the New York Times has gotten in a couple of licks on what's left
>> of the concept of journalistic ethics as well although I'm not sure whether
>> neo-anti-Semitism or the denial of global warming denial merits the bigger
>> pie in the face.
>>     
>
>  Um, again, actual examples would be helpful here. Links to stories, for
> example?
>
>   
Sorry, the volume of crimes reduces individual transgressions to 
indistinguishableness. I will do my best to bring new outrages to your 
attention in the future however.

>  Sincerely,
>
>  Ray Ingles                                                 (313) 227-2317
>
>  "In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take."
>                               Adlai Stevenson
>   
An unexpectedly revelatory sig.