Back.... Again

After a false start last week, I am indeed back (hey jetlag's a bitch... plus I've been catching up on 'Veronica Mars' on DVD- great show). Perhaps the most daunting thing for me in terms of post-vacation blogging was the obvious- where to begin?!! With so much going on right now, I just am unsure of what to even say about all this. Alas, I will try to add something to the chorus of voices all throwing their two or three cents around on the state of politics, circa mid-summer 2006.

First up is a post I actually started before my vacation, but never got around to finishing. The thoughts in it still aren't as complete as I would like, but it is a subject- the media's disproportionate criticism of blogs- that I have found fascinating. Maybe you will too!

Anyway, here it is...


Glenn Greenwald has an interesting post about a topic I've been thinking about for a while... why the media is obsessed with the liberal blogosphere (particularly their attempts to- gasp!- try and influence and empower the Democratic Party grassroots), but completely ignores the conservative blogosphere (where the average post is not about helping political causes and movements, but rather just daily rants about how liberals, etc, want America to die and how we need to wage war against everyone and everything). Greenwald particularly focuses on the daily calls on these blogs for violence and/or imprisonment for anyone who they feel does not share the same political interests as President Bush. It is definitely more the rule than the exception too.

As someone who reads, out of intellectual curiousity, popular conservative blogs like Powerline or Michelle Malkin on a daily basis, I can vouch that these people are scary. And I don't mean scary in a 'I disagree with them politically' way, but in a 'Please God tell me these people are actually a form of satire' way. These blogs even made me melt down once and forced a catharis post that still stands up.

I came across a good example of this randomly a couple weeks ago... an entry at Blogs For Bush entitled 'Democrats' Domestic Spying'. The title is obviously intending to portray Democrats as hypocrites on the issue of domestic spying, after revelations and criticism of President Bush authorizing... warrantless wiretaps, phone record databases, email searches, etc. So what did the Democrats do that they has them so angry? The post discusses a door-to-door campaign tactic of tailoring the message you deliver to the homeowner based on signs you can see around their home or what they say (ie. mention child heathcare if they have kids, etc). A typical, decades-old campaign tool (popular by all parties) in their minds becomes... spying. This is one random example; I can find far crazier at some of the blogs mentioned above. They write that "this is both amusing and pathetic at the same time". They are correct in that assessment (oh wait, they were referring to the campaigning thing- my bad!).

What I think makes this significant is that the media/pundits always discuss the 'angry left' out of some old habit, while ignoring that, post-Limbaugh, most of the political vitriol in this country comes from the right. And, unlike the far-left in this country (like the infamous 9/11 conspiracy theorists) who are marginalized, these conservative bloggers wield alot of mainstream influence and are often brought onto cable news show (and not just on Fox) as serious political experts. The media tends to be skeptical or derisive of liberal bloggers, but when the conservative bloggers make up a scandal- ie. does the media want us to lose the war in Iraq- all the news outlets take it up as a serious debate.

This is done for two big reasons that I can think of. The first is simply that the right-wing's chants of 'liberal bias!!' (and protests, etc) have so frightened the mainstream media that their safe instinct now when approaching most stories is to approach it from the Republican point-of-view and work outwards from there. The second is related to the first- in attempts to appear more 'fair', the media sometimes seeks balance even in obviously one-sided stories (ie. the attempts to make the Abramoff scandal about Democrats too). Little do they realize that nothing will appease the right-wing, who care not about media fairness, but simply loathe the press and have been working to hinder it for years.

Left-wing blogs criticize the press as well, by the way, but their criticism centers around correcting the problems of sloppy journalism and those caused by this phenomenon- by attempting to be more 'fair', the media has actually become less balanced. Their blind spot when it comes to right-wing blogs, if only because of their obsession with the liberal ones, is more proof of this.

Finally, Greenwald sums up his findings-

The extremist and increasingly deranged rhetoric and tactics found in the right-wing blogosphere -- not only among obscure bloggers but promoted and disseminated by its most-read and influential bloggers -- is, indeed, "a very common disease." When it becomes commonplace to hurl accusations of treason against domestic political opponents, or when calls for imprisonment and/or hanging of journalists and political leaders become the daily fare -- all of which is true for the pro-Bush blogosphere -- those are serious developments. And they merit discussion and examination by the media.

^ What he said.