Matt Yglesias

Jan 14th, 2009 at 4:22 pm

Journalists, Bloggers, and Status Anxiety

Ta-Nehisi Coates, taking note of a White House pool reporter’s decision to include a weird jab at bloggers remarks: “The more I read those sort of backhands, the more I think it’s just job anxiety.”

I think that’s just right. There was a great example on Morning Joe this morning:

BARNICLE: [S]omeone ought to tell governor palin that there’s a distinction between blogging and what she refers to as journalism. Blogging –

MIKA: Is not journalism!

BARNICLE: I would say 95%; maybe 99% of blogging is basically therapy for the blogger.

MIKA: And it’s anonymous, isn’t it?

BARNICLE: Yeah. You know.

BUCHANAN: Right. Writing letters. Getting it off –

Here’s the thing. I’ve never actually heard a crack investigative reporter tell me that the essence of good journalism consists of your work appearing in a non-blog venue. Similarly, I’ve never heard that from an intrepid war reporter. I think those people understand that if you uncover a major secret and write about it in a blog, or in a magazine, or on a newspaper that it’s all the same. Similarly, if you risk your life to get a first-hand account of events in a confusing war zone nobody will care if it’s a blog from the battlefield or a TV report. That’s because those people are doing journalism at its best and they know that their work stands or falls with the information contained therein.

But what Mike Barnicle and Mika Brzezinski and Pat Buchanan do isn’t like that. I say this as someone who likes their show and watches it almost every day, just like I hope people like my blog and read it every day. The three of them, and Joe Scarborough, are all in the same boat with me—we’re providing what we hope is an informative, entertaining product that’s fundamentally derivative of work being done by other people. But a passel of TV chatters and newspaper columnists and guys are accustomed to basking in the glow offered by people doing real reporting. There’s a lot of status anxiety. And this gets to be its worst, in my view, among the kind of people who do the sort of pseudo-reporting associated with following the President of the United States around. Convention dictates that if I sit at a desk and read a transcript of what the press secretary said and then write about the transcript, I’m a lowly cheeto-eater. But if I sit in the White House press room and transcribe what the press secretary said, and then write about the transcript then that’s journalism. Similarly, if I travel around with the president and then read the pool reports that my colleagues write and then write about that: Journalism. But if I read the newspaper account of where the president went and then write about that: Cheetos.

It’s a little silly.

Filed under: Media, Self-Indulgence,





69 Responses to “Journalists, Bloggers, and Status Anxiety”

  1. zed Says:

    Isn’t it a little rich for plagiarist Mike Barnicle to try an tell us what “real” journalism is?

  2. brucds Says:

    “I say this as someone who likes their show and watches it almost every day”

    Matt, you may need professional help. That show is designed to make people stupid. It’s just awful – clowns, really. The irony is that Pat Buchanan is probably the sharpest guy in the bunch, with the most intellectual gravitas. That’s scary. The rest of them are absurd. Scarborough is famous for not having a clue what he’s talking about. Barnicle is like Chris Matthews with a lobotomy. The whole damned mess is an embarrassment.

  3. tsg Says:

    What brucds said.

    There is more food for thought in a bag of Cheetos than can be found on that program.

  4. ron Says:

    Those who can, do.
    Those who can’t, report.

  5. Michael Foody Says:

    They just don’t know what they’re talking about. Blogs are frequently not anonymous because people who write blogs really want attention. Bloggers are just like other pundits only they are generally worse because of the lack of barriers to entry. They think that their ability to articulate obvious opinions is so special that other people can do it, but lot’s of people can.

  6. brucds Says:

    “MIKA: Is not journalism!”

    That sentence was obviously mistranscribed – should read “Mika is not journalism!”

  7. Led Says:

    You could quibble with Barnicle’s percentages, but he has a point about most bloggers just “talking” (as it were) to hear themselves talk. There’s a lot of crappy blogs and Cheeto bloggers who can continuue to talk to themselves because the cost of blogging (as opposed to printing a paper or making a TV show) are minimal. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a number of consistently interesting and informative voices out there blogging. The key distinction is between the interesting and informative content (which may be print, digital or TV) and the self-stimulating crap (which may also be print, digital or TV) and not the distinction between the different types of media.

  8. MikeF Says:

    The whole damned mess is an embarrassment.

    True. I watch anyway, though – I blame Mika.

  9. alex Says:

    I think it’s worse than what Matt’s describing. It’s incredibly generous to suggest that the response to blogging linked above represents even a passing familiarity with what blogging is, what it constitutes. It’s not journalism! It’s anonymous! It’s basically therapy! I believe that there’s a certain status anxiety here, but listening to these clown talking about blogging is a bit like listening to older white guys talking about hip hop. They fear it because it seems like a threat to the culture they grew up in and because they don’t understand it.

  10. sdg Says:

    I say this as someone who likes their show and watches it almost every day

    i don’t even know who you are anymore…

  11. John Emerson Says:

    I’ve been tracking responses to the Coleman-Franken recount on the internet, and the vast majority of the stupid, erroneous or slanderous comments traced back to John Lott in the WSJ, usually through Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity.

  12. John S. Says:

    I’d second what Michael F. said–why are journalists (and politicians like Sarah Palin) so obsessed with the notion that bloggers are anonymous? Do they think “Daily Kos” is some kind of pseudonym? Have they not figured out who Atrios is? I think Digby was the last major anonymous blogger out there, but she was “outed” a while ago.

    And yeah, having Mike Barnicle offer his opinion on the nature of “real” journalism is a little hilarious.

  13. dis Says:

    dude, i completely agree, but the quitting smoking is getting to you.

    you were a bit more ascerbic and less humorous than usual

    get a brew, eat some cheetos and don’t let ‘em get to you.

  14. phil Says:

    As Mike Barnicle can tell you, the essence of journalism is fabricating stories and then publishing them in your employer’s newspaper. After all, what’s important is where you publish your fabrications.

  15. Trevor Says:

    At least Buchanan (unlike Barnicle and a milion other TV mediocrities) can write. His syndicated column, his excellent last book (”Churchill, Hitler…”) David Gregory, Campbell Brown, Blitzer, the lot of them – are just moribund dogshit. Sy Hersh is a journalist.

  16. Jeff H. Says:

    Was that therapeutic for you, Matt? Feel good to get it off your chest?

  17. sdg Says:

    also too, the funny thing is, while there are probably millions of truly horrendous blogs out there, at least you can actually find blogs where “real” news is discussed intelligently.

    cable news channels, not so much.

  18. John Emerson Says:

    Matt does seemed to have missed the point that Mika, Buchanan, and Barnicle are just crap. They may be capable of doing good work, but not in the venue they’re in.

    If Buchanan didn’t have such a squeaky voice, he’d probably be dictator by now. Fascists have to have deep voices.

  19. anonymiss Says:

    My pushback on the “reporters who follow the President” is that, in theory, there is an opportunity to do more than lamely wait in the hotel to be escorted from photo op to photo op. I mean, you could grab people and talk to them, you could research the key federal policies that affect the area and ask the President about them, you could hook up with a local reporter to try and get the skinny on local issues and relate that back to what’s going on in DC, you could figure out ways to make it useful that you actually went out there. You could do actual reporting.

    But instead, the profession has allowed itself to be boxed into some kind of guided tour approach, bouncing from photo op to photo op, reading what they’re spoon-fed.

    It’s very weird. You’d think at least one paper would take a different approach. Hell, even a standing policy of “ask the mayor what s/he thought of the speech” would explain why you had to go out there as opposed to simply reading the release and sending a non-reporter to do the B-roll part of the photo-op.

  20. Peter K. Says:

    But if I sit in the White House press room and transcribe what the press secretary said, and then write about the transcript then that’s journalism.

    I think my fondest memory of the Bush years is Jeff Gannon who went on to become a blogger for the National Press Club.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/jeff-gannon-returns—-as_b_107799.html

  21. pseudonymous in nc Says:

    Cablenews politics: the stuff between adverts and live car-chases.

  22. gordon gekko Says:

    To be fair he says 99% of blogging is basically therapy for the blogger. That is probably true. There are a lot of blogs that nobody reads and have little relevance to anybody but themselves. Matt’s probably in that 1%.

  23. cheflovesbeer Says:

    like I hope people like my blog and read it every day.

    We do MattY

  24. Anthony Damiani Says:

    Now I want some Cheetos.

  25. AutomaticMojo Says:

    As one of the rapidly dwindling number of human beings drawing a regular paycheck from a printed media operation, I see blogging as a form of journalism, and reporting (online or in print, the difference in distribution has to do with business model, not content) as another form. Bloggers rarely do much actual reporting.

    While the signal-to-noise ratio in reporting has been in decline for years at this point, most of the blogging out there has always masturbatory. The best of both are worthwhile to indispensable.

    The question is, does reporting outlive the imminent death of newspapers?

  26. Jim W Says:

    Their show is pretty good. Ironically, I think it is best whenever Joe isn’t there. The other personalities seem to gel better, and have more interesting things to say.

    Having said that, I usually only watch the first 10 minutes or so before putting on Curious George for my kids.

  27. chrismealy Says:

    No Matt, your problem is that you don’t make $1,000,000/year. Only the rich count.

  28. Richard Steven Hack Says:

    Matt still doesn’t understand chimpanzee behavior.

    It’s all about primate hierarchy, Matt. And you’re just not an alpha male. Get used to it.

  29. anonymiss Says:

    The question is, does reporting outlive the imminent death of newspapers?

    That is actually a very important question.

  30. rmwarnick Says:

    It’s a lot silly. And I’m getting hungry for some Cheetos, too…

  31. Brien Jackson Says:

    I think the problem some pundits have with bloggers isn’t so much the status thing as it is an insecurity about their future. There was a time when you really actually had to be in these positions to have the sorts of information you needed to report on things or make informed analysis or whatever, but as you note the internet has totally dissolved that reality. And I think what Scarborough et. al. are most afraid of is that this reality, as well as the reality of a MSM (at least in print) that’s probably going to have to get smaller and more niched, is going to eventually lead to a media environment that values smart political analysis over the random luck of positioning. Where the fact that Mika is Zbig’s daughter won’t matter so much as the fact that she’s a flaming idiot and Digby is a sharp commentator.

    I don’t know that such a thing will ever materialize on cable, but I might still be worried about it if I was working there.

  32. JimboSlice Says:

    Maybe journalists hate bloggers for a few reasons:

    1) Bloggers are not accountable to the facts, and do not need to pass through editing.
    2) Bloggers typically take media stories out of context and slam the writer of said story in some pretty nasty and vile ways
    3) Journalists do leg work to dig up info on a story then Bloggers come along and use the journalists story (often without authority) so that the bloggers can avoid doing any real work – in academia its called plagiarism, in blogging land its called “fair use”
    4) and finally, but probably most importantly, bloggers tend to comment on stuff they know nothing about (does anyone really think that spoiled philosophy major knows the 1st thing about reforming inner city schools?) then the blogger “writes” about the subject with an air of authority and stubbornness.

  33. Mickster Says:

    Something about the frequency of the word “silly” to describe other’s thoughts, behaviors, etc. I googled for “its silly blogs” and get 24 million hits. I would suggest some alternates for “silly” as follows:

    foolish, stupid, unintelligent, idiotic, brainless, mindless, witless, imbecilic, doltish; imprudent, thoughtless, rash, reckless, foolhardy, irresponsible; mad, scatterbrained, featherbrained; frivolous, giddy, inane, immature, childish, puerile, empty-headed, crazy, dotty, scatty, loopy,wingy, ditzy, screwy, thick, thickheaded, birdbrained, pea-brained, dopey, dim, dimwitted, halfwitted, dippy, blockheaded, boneheaded, lamebrained; daft, chowderheaded; dated tomfool

    My favorites are brainless, witless, imbecilic, birdbrained, halfwitted and the ultimate putdown: chowderheaded.

    How about it matt. Open up that thesaurus and surprise me.

    Best Regards,

    Mickster

  34. JimboSlice Says:

    But how would all that distinguish a TV pundit like Scarborough from the bloggers you describe?

    Scarborough is not a journalist. Scarborough is a propagandist. The only difference between Scarborough and a blogger is that Scarborough gets paid more and does his dirty work yelling on TV instead of posting on a blog. Scarborough is in direct competition with bloggers like MY for influence over the ignorant masses.

  35. tsg Says:

    I’m glad to see others agree above that Cheetos are really delicious. Seriously, they are f’ing good!

    I like the puffy ones best. They harmonize airiness, greasiness and cheesiness into a perfect snack that will melt in your mouth or yield a satisfying crunch depending upon how you treat it. Yes, I’ve tried the cheese sticks from Murray’s on Bleecker St. and they’re quite good (for about 1000x the price of Cheetos, they better be). Puffy Cheetos are just as good in their own way.

    The crunchy Cheetos I find just so-so. I also don’t go for any non-traditional flavors. Perhaps others feel differently, that’s why there’s a Cheeto for everyone.

    And we’re talking the real-deal, Frito-Lay Cheetos here, none of the cheap pretenders.

    It’s time to end this nonsense of using Cheeto eating as an epithet.

    CheezIts ain’t bad either.

  36. Richard Steven Hack Says:

    In the “Allison From Palmdale” episode, John Connor actually told Cameron to pick up “those cheese things – the crunchy ones, not the puffy ones.”

    She turned with her lip curled in disgust – which is hard for a Terminator who doesn’t feel any emotions.

  37. Ed Marshall Says:

    Jimbo, I’ve seen you say all manner of ignorant things about subjects you don’t seem to know much about. Are you better for that being a blog commmentor or even more pathetic?

  38. Knockout Ed Says:

    @JimboSlice

    One can find many so called journalists who have committed many of the sins you accuse bloggers of. By the way gross generalization hurts your argument.

  39. tsg Says:

    R.S. Hack — You don’t need emotion to know the puffy ones are better, just good taste.

  40. JimboSlice Says:

    Jimbo, I’ve seen you say all manner of ignorant things about subjects you don’t seem to know much about. Are you better for that being a blog commmentor or even more pathetic?

    I for one don’t have fat fingers so I don’t over type the number of m’s. I also know that commenter has an “e” in it, but I’ll let that minor stuff slide.

    As for the main crux of your question I view commenting on blogs as inherently different from writing a blog. I also differentiate between bloggers who view blogging as a job and those who view it as a hobby. Since I don’t have my own blog, and I do have a real job, I would not lump myself in with new media duechebags like Lord Yglesias.

  41. Ed Marshall Says:

    So what new media *douchebags*, (there is no ue in it, but I’ll let that slide) do you like? Why do you come here every day? It’s not always to talk a bunch of shit about Matt.

  42. JimboSlice Says:

    Why are you unable to refute the statements I made and instead revert to questioning why I comment on the blog?

  43. Thorstein Veblen Says:

    Hey everyone, just thought I’d share a new blog by liberal graduate students in economics…

    http://firelarrysummersnow.blogspot.com/

    Enjoy!

  44. Evil Twin Says:

    JimboSlice, if no one bothers to refute your nonsense it is because it is moronic and self-refuting. You are one of those incredibly stupid people who still think that Bush wasn’t a total fucking disaster.

  45. Ed Marshall Says:

    Fine, point by point:

    1) Bloggers are not accountable to the facts, and do not need to pass through editing.

    Maybe you know something about how much value editors bring to the print media. I don’t. I’m not seeing the value added there anywhere. What paper do I need to pick up to find editors scrubbing out bullshit?

    Bloggers typically take media stories out of context and slam the writer of said story in some pretty nasty and vile ways

    I don’t know if that’s typical or not. This sounds like total bullshit. I can usually think of 100% in context ways to slam these writers in some pretty nasty and vile ways. I hope laziness isn’t producing short-cuts.

    Journalists do leg work to dig up info on a story then Bloggers come along and use the journalists story (often without authority) so that the bloggers can avoid doing any real work – in academia its called plagiarism, in blogging land its called “fair use”

    This is bugshit nuts. Throughout this thing, I get the feeling that you are conflating investigative journalists with print journalists (which was the entire point of the post!). Your feelings on the strength of intellectual property wall, while I find them stupid are totally irrelevant to this discussion because print journalists operate under the exact same rules and do the exact same thing.

    and finally, but probably most importantly, bloggers tend to comment on stuff they know nothing about (does anyone really think that spoiled philosophy major knows the 1st thing about reforming inner city schools?) then the blogger “writes” about the subject with an air of authority and stubbornness.

    Finally, but most importantly, you do damn little but blow off steam about things you obviously don’t know anything about. I caught something once you wrote where you were using an obviously good engineering mind to take apart a problem in a really wrong-headed direction that had nothing to do with the problem.

    This was the only reason you drew a response out of me. If there is anyone in the world who seems ill-equipped to bitch out MY for thinking he gets out of his depths it’s you.

  46. JimboSlice Says:

    EvilTwin:

    You are one of those incredibly stupid people who still think that Bush wasn’t a total fucking disaster.

    Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm where do you get that idea from? I don’t think I have ever commented positively on anything shrub has ever done, because to do so would be to validate the incalculable things which he has fucked up.

    In 2003 I finally realized the US was populated mainly by a collection of incredibly stupid like Lord Yglesias, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton who fell for Bush’s lies about Iraq and WMD. And by sociopaths like Scarborough, Hannity, and Coleman who helped propagate those lies so they could get republican ideologues elected.

  47. JimboSlice Says:

    Maybe you know something about how much value editors bring to the print media. I don’t. I’m not seeing the value added there anywhere. What paper do I need to pick up to find editors scrubbing out bullshit?

    I know when I am reading a paper I like to know its been fact checked before I read it. If it hasn’t been you will eventually find out the and then the reliability and therefore the utility of the paper goes down the crapper. Newspapers have a vested interest in maintaining their credibility, and they use their editors to do this. I would much rather read a paper that gets its facts straight then a paper that makes shit up (which is why the globe was right to can Barnicle)

    I don’t know if that’s typical or not. This sounds like total bullshit. I can usually think of 100% in context ways to slam these writers in some pretty nasty and vile ways. I hope laziness isn’t producing short-cuts.

    It really is pretty typical of this blog and many others. Of course typical is a relative term, but I know that it is more accurate than using the quantifier “total” before bullshit.

    This is bugshit nuts. Throughout this thing, I get the feeling that you are conflating investigative journalists with print journalists (which was the entire point of the post!). Your feelings on the strength of intellectual property wall, while I find them stupid are totally irrelevant to this discussion because print journalists operate under the exact same rules and do the exact same thing.

    I think you (and MY) are confusing journalists with columnists. I don’t think papers start and end on the editorial page, so I see a lot of great journalism in the papers everyday. Being a print journalist and being an investigative journalist are not mutually exclusive.

    By the way, print journalist can and do get fired for taking other people’s work.

  48. Ed Marshall Says:

    By the way, print journalist can and do get fired for taking other people’s work.

    No, they don’t. This is total bullshit. They attribute each other in the exact same way blogs do. Find me an example of a print journalist who got fired for citing other work. Out of your depth?

  49. tony Says:

    The major advantage traditional journalism had over blogging died shortly after investigative journalism did. If these traditional “journalists” were really more intelligent than blogging journalists, they’d left the failing industry by now.

  50. Ed Marshall Says:

    I know when I am reading a paper I like to know its been fact checked before I read it.

    So you are pissy about Matt being an asshole, democrat, groupie in 2003 and buying into the party line on Iraq, but you trust the papers?

    What papers were you reading? This is my business actually. I’d be really fascinated to know the circulation of these papers vs. blogs that weren’t acting like idiots in 2003.

  51. Joe Strummer Says:

    To be fair he says 99% of blogging is basically therapy for the blogger. That is probably true. There are a lot of blogs that nobody reads and have little relevance to anybody but themselves. Matt’s probably in that 1%.

    Then we need a new word for this stuff. Blogojournalist? Bloggologist. Bloggolist. Bloggolism. Whatever man. But the point is, it doesn’t really matter the form of the journalism, so long as the content is decent.

  52. JimboSlice Says:

    No, they don’t. This is total bullshit. They attribute each other in the exact same way blogs do. Find me an example of a print journalist who got fired for citing other work. Out of your depth?

    Google Ron Borges. I just know that one off the top of my head because I like the Globe and I hate Ron Borges.

  53. JimboSlice Says:

    So you are pissy about Matt being an asshole, democrat, groupie in 2003 and buying into the party line on Iraq, but you trust the papers?

    If you look at how the vote went down their was no “party line” for the Democrats. 126-81 in the House, and
    23-28 in the Senate.

    http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll455.xml
    http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237

    With regards to Middle Eastern foreign policy I don’t trust anything the MSM reports because they have an obvious bias towards supporting whatever is in the best interest of Israel.

  54. sdg Says:

    I for one don’t have fat fingers so I don’t over type the number of m’s.

    after a statement like this, i really question your credibility. as far as i can tell, fat fingers would cause one to erroneously strike a key that is adjacent to the desired key not strike the desired key too many times.

  55. Adrock Says:

    The real problem those people have is a misunderstanding of the medium.

    Blogging is a medium, similar to newspapers, tv news shows, or radio. Its no different than any other method of delivery of information.

    Bloggers can be both reporter and/or pundit. You can make the case that there is more the latter, but that is most certainly due to ease of access of the medium.

    What Matt does isn’t much different than Thomas Friedman (switching mix-metaphors for bad grammar and spelling of course. :) Do they both offer opinion? Sure. Do they offer analysis? Yup. Do they both call sources and report of what those sources said? Mostly.

    What Mike and Joe need to do is look in the mirror. Whether they are on TV or write on the internet makes no difference for what we call their profession: pundits!

  56. Jonathan Says:

    Matt – As I’m sure you know, Morning Joe will be at the Dubliner next Mon./Tues. starting at 6am. That’s right by your house! Far be it for me to suggest that a blogger take direct action, but wouldn’t it be great if you engaged them on the merits of their argument…live and in person?

  57. The Pop View Says:

    First, I find it highly ironic to hear such comments from Scarborough, who has recently increased his propensity for throwing out wild allegations, while simultaneously making it clear that he doesn’t care whether or not they’re true.

    As for journalists v bloggers, I have some sympathy, as I have a number of reporter friends who really dislike bloggers.

    That said, the notion that all journalists are accountable to the facts and are fact-checked on a regular basis and don’t regularly get details wrong is ludicrous. I do agree that editors serve a valuable function, but the editing role is increasingly shrinking in journalism, so this distinction is becoming a moot point.

    I can think of any number of op-ed writer and pundits who also “take media stories out of context and slam the writer of said story in some pretty nasty and vile ways.”

    Most journalists don’t do all that much leg work to dig up information. I wish they did, but reporters today have limited time & resources and some tend toward the lazy side. Most of the news is spoon-fed to the press. Genuine investigative efforts are less frequent.

    “Bloggers come along and use the journalists story (often without authority) so that the bloggers can avoid doing any real work.” Do you have any idea how many news stories are predicated entirely on work first published by someone else? Every morning, I can hear a news story on WTOP that says, “According to a story in today’s Washington Post…” Local TV news is notorious for this sort of thing, but it’s pretty rampant throughout journalism and has been so forever.

    Bloggers tend to comment on stuff they know nothing about? Oh, and mainstream reporters don’t? It’s the nature of the job. Journalists are called upon to write about things all the time that they don’t have direct experience on.

    On the whole, I would give greater weight to mainstream journalism for their reporting and I wouldn’t suggest relying on the blogosphere as a primary information source. But I also wouldn’t suggest that journalists are paragons of accuracy and objectivity.

  58. Persia Says:

    I know when I am reading a paper I like to know its been fact checked before I read it. If it hasn’t been you will eventually find out the and then the reliability and therefore the utility of the paper goes down the crapper

    Like the New York Times as a result of the Iraq war reporting. And the way the New Republic went bankrupt after the Stephen Glass affair, and the Washington Post was never taken seriously after that Janet Cooke story was published….

  59. Kyle Stone Says:

    Thanks for writing this, Matt. The true dichotomy is not between journalism and blogging but rather between journalism and it’s own propensity for bullshit. I was thrilled to read “A pep talk for journalists”, by Gina Chen, for this very reason:

    http://savethemedia.com/2009/01/12/a-pep-talk-for-journalists/

  60. James Martin Says:

    “Isn’t it a little rich for plagiarist Mike Barnicle to try an tell us what ‘real’ journalism is?”

  61. sfcmac Says:

    BARNICLE: [S]omeone ought to tell governor palin that there’s a distinction between blogging and what she refers to as journalism. Blogging –

    MIKA: Is not journalism!

    Really? Is that why an abundance of “journalists” have blogs on the major network sites (ABC/CBS/NBC) that employ them?

    Besides, you know bloggers are doing their job when they get
    under the skin of asshats like Mika and Helen Thomas.

  62. sfcmac Says:

    Here’s the link for the Thomas story:
    http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/helen-thomas-rails-against-bloggers/

  63. Al Bullock Says:

    If it gets in a blog it will not be edited to toe the line.

    If gets in a newspaper or cable news it WILL
    be edited to toe the medias propaganda agenda. Read far left!

  64. ricky Says:

    I for one am sick and tired of bloggers taking umbrage at notice being paid to their noshing habits. As an acknowledged recoving member of Cheetos Anonymous, I wear my orange fingers with pride.

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