Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
The presumption exists that you can read at all.
That may be a large assumption.
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Monday, September 27, 2004
- - - - - The "Pajamahadeen" and "The Media" - - - - -
Remember this?
Jonathan Klein, formerly a senior executive of 60 Minutes, said on Fox News. (Quote from TIME).
| "Bloggers have no checks and balances. [It's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas." |
Yep, that describes me, and another few thousands of people who don't quite believe that we're really getting "All The News That's Fit To Print". At least, not from the traditional sources available to The People.
Let's back-track a little here.
'Way back there, the dukes and earls and kings and The Church decided what was fit for the people to hear. The "news" was slanted to suit the power structure of the day.
Then came Gutenberg, the guy who invented the printing press.
And suddenly, the "news" was subjected to a new set of filters.
In America, the "media" reached it's zenith with Watergate and the humbling of Richard Nixon.
They've been on a downhill slide ever since.
And now the nadir has arrived. The "traditional media" have been caught out. One of the Big Guns of journalism has been caught in a perceived act of forging documents to make a story about a sitting President look real.
Using the Internet, the fact checking by the people, started immediately. And soon enough, the truth came out.
Why is this important?
Consider the sequence: From the Kings and Dukes and Earls, to the Fourth Estate, to The People.
I had no direct, or indirect part in exposing the forgeries of RatherGate.
Nonetheless, after viewing a side-by-side comparison of a real, authenticated Texas Air National Guard memo versus the CBS-supplied copy of an alleged memo, I was able to distinguish the two, and say to myself, "Whoa, Dude, something here smells rather badly, neh?"
And this is why "RatherGate" is so important.
The "Pajamahadeen" are now acting as a part of the "checks and balances" that Mr. Klein thinks is so important.
Mr. Klein doesn't like this, of course. After all, the Pajamahadeen are not the anointed of the Columbia School of Journalism. The Pajamahadeen are the citizenry, unwashed and "uneducated", but certainly able to tell a fresh fish from a smelly one.
So now, the citizenry is able, and willing, and through their own sources and resources, to hold the Fourth Estate accountable.
GOOD!
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