Ahem…
Posted by TFG on August 7th, 2007
Right Wing Nut House ยป A RESPONSE TO CRITICS OF MY LAST POST
But not surprisingly, no blogs or commenters below have addressed the thrust of my argument; that these blogswarms blow things out of proportion until the story takes on an importance far beyond anything having to do with the world outside of this cliquish little circle of blogs and blog readers.
I’ll try to address that thrust, Rick. When Ace of Spades and Rick Moran are sitting on news-stands and in mailboxes across America, it won’t be a big deal. Until then, a blogswarm by cliquish little circles is all that any of us regular jagoffs have.
“Fact-checking their asses” used to be, at a minimum, a good enough reason to type into the internet. Now, though, I shouldn’t even be doing that? Seriously, think about what you’re saying for a moment, Rick, if you’re not too big-time to do it — self-published individuals should rein themselves in, because it’s inconsequential not consequential enough. Blow it out of proportion? It’s impossible…it’s the web, it’s the American people.
Well, piss on that. Like all good Americans, I’ve got an opinion and I’ll spout it out there, thanks to good American technology. If it troubles the Franklin Foers or Rick Morans or AoSHQs of the world, piss on them, too. The whole point of the blog qua blog wasn’t to garner AdSense hits, TLA payments, BlogAds, or super-sweet gigs at The Atlantic.* It was to shoot off your mouth to something or someone besides the same a-holes on the same barstools at the the same tavern five nights a week. They got tired of hearing my crap, just like I got tired of hearing theirs, and I’ll be danged if I’m going to take a beat-down about inconsequentiality from a high-horse Johnny-Come-Lately.
And now I’ve spent more time bitching about blogging about blogging, something I swore I would never do again. Never say never, I guess.
* Yeah, I get ‘em, and I’ll keep on getting ‘em as long as they keep on paying me. I’ve got about six websites I manage for various folks, and only this one makes any dough, which I use to keep them going. I did this same spouting off without making a nickel for three years, but I sincerely doubt I’d bother doing it again in 2007. Too many pros, too many grifters, too many poseurs.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:14 am
I’ve watched this whole non-story evolve on Malkin/Hot Air/LGF/Powerline/Hewitt, and what strikes me about the way the righty blogosphere handled this is that they’re unable to simply call a spade a spade and walk away.
The piece as originally published was hyperbole at best, a piece of semi-fiction at worst. Any idiot could see that. And a whole bunch did. What they chose to do with it was the problem.
Does anyone really believe that a blatantly exaggerated anonymous piece in TNR is going to devastate the morale of the troops, embolden the enemy, turn the country against the military and prevent us from “winning” (whatever the hell definition we’re using for that term this week) the war?
Please.
I’m all for fact-checking the TNR editors on this one. That’s important work, *if* this story was being framed as “news,” which I suppose it was. But the angry villagers with torches act undermines the righty blogosphere’s “credibility*” when it comes to these (non-)issues.
*First of all, who’s “credible” regurgitating news on the web anyway? Second, by no means should my words be construed to absolve lefty bloggers of any of the same sins. They just use different means to their ends (hand-wringing and conspiracy theories, mainly).
This incident, in all its amplitude and anger, was about collecting another scalp and nailing another quote-unquote-liberal to the cross. It wasn’t going to be enough to get the non-apology “correction” from TNR with assurance that this guy wouldn’t be published by that outlet again. That should have been plenty, really. That outcome, to any reasonable person, is a victory. To go any farther than that does a disservice to the “cause,” as it continues to reinforce the image of the righty blogosphere as a group intent on achieving victory through whatever scorched-earth means necessary.
60 Minutes did a piece a few weeks back on the MP at Abu Ghraib on whose desk landed (anonymously) all those pictures of “prisoner abuse.” All this guy did was pass them up the chain, and now he’s unable to ever go home again due to the death threats he and his family face. Is there any doubt at all that Malkin and the LGF crew wish the same sort of pariah status** on Beauchamp and Foer for what amounts to a non-issue that could have been handled more professionally and amicably?
**No, I’m not saying Malkin and LGF writers/commenters want Beauchamp and Foer dead. I do, however, think they’d put a scarlet L-For-Liar on their chest and follow them with picket signs everywhere they could for the rest of their lives, were it at all practical. Let’s see what happens in two years of Beauchamp lands a job writing for GQ about stereo equipment or something. Just wait for the outrage…
The blogswarm on this one was entirely out of proportion. For two (three?) weeks running, this was apparently one of the MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES in the world, and it was of paramount importance to
protect the integrity of our troopsstop emboldening the enemytake down a “respected” publication and an anonymous author for publishing something they found distasteful and assumed to be wholly false.Perspective, y’all. Scott Thomas Beauchamp ain’t losing this war, and neither is Franklin Foer. It was a small thing that any intelligent person would have rolled their eyes at, yet as a result of the aggrieved amplitude of the righty blogosphere, he got a wider audience than could possibly have been expected.
Mission accomplished, I suppose.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Moran misses one big point: the story kept going in the blogosphere because TNR refused to admit that their boy was unreliable.
He also ignores the fact that TNR was willing to fire a staffer for leaking about Beauchamp’s prior relationship with TNR. So TNR thought this whole kerfuffle was pretty important to Mr. Foer.
If Beauchamp’s lies are no big deal, then what is the point of honest reporting? And does anyone think that any MSM outlet would accept these standards of fictionalized reporting if the targets were illegal immigrants, a gay rights organization, or inner city minorities?
August 8th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Actually I was delighted to see Beauchamp get his ass handed to him. And if it wasn’t so important, then why did both the NYTimes and the WaPo write about it? Not once but several times. It wasn’t, to my veteran’s mind, that big a deal as to “hurt the war effort,” etc., or even to besmirch the military, which the TNRs of the world specialize in. Itb was just the usual lefty crap somebody needed to call them on. And who else would do it, if not the blogs?
August 8th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
BG, I could care less about scalps on poles, left, right, LGF/Kos, blah blah blah. This is blogs being blogs and why guys like me started writing blogs. They (we) don’t like the way the media works, period, full stop. Foer/Beauchamp is just the next Stephen Glass, making shit up as they go along, and we the people are expected to just keep gobbling it up. And never complain about it. As a wise man once said, fuck that shit.
Especially, don’t tell me not to swarm or that it’s not consequential enough to be covered. I pay for this site, and I’ll decide what’s consequential, not Rick Moran or Franklin Foer. Everybody else is free to make their own decision, and set their own level on the Care-O-Meter. You might have noticed that I haven’t said dick about this, until now, when blogs being blogs are getting the Kindergarten Teach Finger Shake from a Big Wheel. They can all go shake a finger somewhere else, but not in my face.
Again, it’s the whole damn point of blogs. If they end up swarming, then, I guess there was something worth swarming, no? Maybe not worth it to you or me, but to someone (see Dick up above.) I “swarmed” the iPhone, I swarmed online poker, I swarmed the Rem870 in .223. Are those, too, inconsequential? If you say yes, then I say you’ve missed the point of the personal blog.
And if you want to argue talking point echo chamber — well, there’s no YearlyTFG with Democratic Presidential candidates on the stage. Yet, anyway. Point being, we are all individuals and we all get to do what we want to do on our personal blogs. If YTFG or Foer or Plame or the Rem870 in .223 is the choice, then cest la vie. Or guerre, as the case may be.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I wonder if the name “Jim Zumbo” would ring a bell for Mr. Moran…
August 9th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Doubtful…he lives in Chicago.