The Right and the News
I don’t agree with much in this Michael Goldfarb item but the last bit is worth quoting:
Still, for online partisan reporting, TPM set the bar pretty high this election. Republicans have no equivalent outlet. Any strategy to revive the party’s fortunes will require developing the kind of online infrastructure the Democrats now have in place, but you can’t do that without a bunch of right-wing Greg Sargents.
The issue, though, isn’t that the right doesn’t have an outlet equivalent to TPM or other progressive sites. There are tons and tons of conservative media outlets, most of them with a web presence, and the web presences of places like Goldfarb’s Weekly Standard blog would be higher if they were breaking interesting news the way ThinkProgress, HuffingtonPost, TPM, Washington Independent, etc. do. What the right lacks are people with the skill to do the job. The one time I can recall the conservosphere leading the charge on a legitimate story, the thing with Dan Rather and the national guard memos, they got tons of traffic and attention. And lord knows the conservative media has lots of money and plenty of staff. But almost none of that stuff is going to people who report competently. Instead, you get a lot of wild conspiracy theories and a lot of commentary. The progressive blogosphere involves plenty of commentary, of course, and relies a decent amount on reporting done by the non-ideological media. But the right, for all its loathing of the allegedly liberal MSM, is actually entirely dependent on it and the cable-Drudge nexus to advance stories. As Goldfard indicates, there’s just no independent capability. But it’s not a lack of outlets that’s the problem.
72 Responses to “The Right and the News”
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January 2nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
The liberal media was successful because the liberal candidate was popular with liberals. The Conservative media failed because the conservative candidate was unpopular with conservatives.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I wonder if you two agree more than you think, Matt. I’m not sure that Goldfarb means outlet in the sense that he thinks that conservatives don’t have a place that could be TPM - I think he agrees that conservatives don’t have people like Greg Sargent. Remember, TPM started out as Josh Marshall’s blog, but he had a great idea - why not hire reporters and break stories.
But yes, as things stand now, there is no one on the conservative side with skills as reporters. I do wonder how long this will last - I tend to think that they will figure something out, but for now, the left has a decided advantage.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I think your analysis is right if you’re just talking about blogs and online media, but let’s say we decided to count the Wall Street Journal or Fox News as conservative media and the focus on commentary over news stops mattering as much.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I don’t think that was the most interesting part of Goldfarb’s comment
“Sargent pretty much carried TPM over the last year, and it’s not clear to me how that site survives in its current configuration during a Democratic administration (which they have no interest in investigating) and without their best reporter.”
I think a big key to the credibility of TPM/Huffington/ThinkProgress is that they DO criticize democrats (albeit often from the left, so differently from the MSM). If the conservative blogosphere wants to gain credibility, at some point they’re going to have to stop just promoting GOP talking points
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
The one time I can recall the conservosphere leading the charge on a legitimate story, the thing with Dan Rather and the national guard memos, they got tons of traffic and attention.
But, interestingly enough, they apparently got even that story wrong. From an NPR Morning Edition story of December 23:
Rather’s attorneys also point to public statements by Michael Missal, a lawyer in Thornburgh’s law firm who helped conduct the investigation.
“It’s ironic that the blogs were actually wrong when they had their criticism,” [Michael Missal, a lawyer with the Thornburgh investigation] said in a speech back in March at Washington and Lee’s law school.
“We actually did find typewriters that did have the superscripts, did have proportional spacing, and on the fonts, given that these are copies, it’s really hard to say,” Missal said. “But there were some typewriters that looked like they could have some similar fonts there, so the initial concerns didn’t seem as though they would hold up.”
The piece goes on to point out that the Thornburgh Commission found independent evidence bringing into doubt the original 60 Minutes piece. But nonetheless this comment is telling. Basically, the right blogosphere works by making sweeping claims that evidence [like Obama's actual birth certificate, for instance] must have been faked because it lacks some supposedly telling characteristic, or because it displays some characteristic that’s historically impossible. They’ve actually tried to repeat their Rather “success” ever since using the same methods [Look at how they've flogged the Obama birth certificate matter], oblivious to the fact that their preferred methods didn’t even work the first time.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Matt, I couldn’t have said it better and I haven’t read it anywhere else that really makes the point. The Right, since Limbaugh, has focused on commentary to do nothing but belittle the Left. Limbaugh became rich and famous and there are countless others following his technique to the letter. No one is willing to say anything positive regarding the Left, even when it there is no controversy.
I am still surprised that Obama won the election despite the numbers of people listening to Right Talk Radio and reading web commentary. Did an enormous number of people quit listening or did they just ignore them and vote for Obama (and Democrats overwhelmingly)?
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Re “But it’s not a lack of outlets that’s the problem.”
———
No, the problem is that right wing commentators are retarded. That’s why they’re right wing commentators.
Other than recognizing which are the lucrative butts to kiss, they have no analytical ability.
That is why they are merely a propaganda machine — their structure is a one-way broadcast. Look at Instapundit.
They don’t want to get into a war of ideas because they are unarmed.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
If you don’t think that linguistic comparisons between “Dreams of My Father” and “Fugitive Days” constitutes genuine investigative reporting (as opposed to wild conspiracy speculation) then I really don’t know what to say…
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Breaking News means exposing government corruption…if you’re on the “Republican Team”, and are a conservative leaning reporter/blogger, then you defend torture and illegal spying…and all the other abuses…and you call the people who expose this news as traitors…
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
How is TPM a partisan outlet? Josh is consistently a centrist republican-lite blogger. I have lost count of the times I have reminded him that his job is not simply reporting the news, it is defeating republicans.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I mean, if you’re a conservative leaning reporter and you think there’s no need to delve further into some of the worst abuses (in our views) over the past 8 years…then what actually constitutes looking into? I ask this question not rhetorically…I’d really like to know what topics you’d think would be covered in an honest looking conservative tpm?
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Matt, I think you’re really undervaluing the intrepid investigative journalism of one Michelle Malkin as she trolled my Baltimore neighborhood trying to unveil Graham Frost’s parents as the welfare scammers that all Dems aim to be.
I think your shining example of investigative work on the right (Rathergate) is an example of what’s led everyone on the right to go wrong since then. Whether it’s Obama’s birth certificate, Graham Frost, or even my own boring site, investigative reporting on the right is exclusively limited to this sort of fact-checking nonsense that’s almost always bogus.
TPM’s succeeded by avoiding digging deeper into stories once it begins to look like there’s nothing to be suspicious about (specifically thinking about something about donations from Hess oil employees in the election where TPM nearly went overboard), and also by focusing on process in campaigns and politics in addition to run-of-the-mill scandal and dishonesty.
I think the lack of non-conspiracy stuff (and Rathergate was a wild conspiracy story that just happened to be true) is also dictated by the interests of the conservative audience. Folks reading Little Green Footballs are just a lot more interested in debating whether Obama put his hand over his heart or whatever rather than what’s going on in real life.
It’s also worth noting that the sites you mention, specifically HuffPo, aren’t immune to going way overboard on a story that smells right but winds up being entirely bogus. For example, here’s someone who bought into the “Palin cut special needs funding!” canard and apparently thinks that the budget for special needs education in Alaska is a few thousand dollars.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:15 pm
1. Regarding the “credibility” of Huff and the rest, I wish I’d taken screenshots of all the stories from “liberal” sites that were on Digg’s frontpage marked as inaccurate. In one case, almost all of them were.
2. MattY’s definitions of “interesting news”, “legitimate story”, and “wild conspiracy theories” are, of course, as suspect as anything else he writes. For instance, where BHO was born has not definitively been proven, and many sources have lied about what the state of HI said. In their 10/31 statement they didn’t confirm where he was born, what was on his cert, or whether the cert on his site matched the one on file.
And, when I asked them to confirm the assumptions of FactCheck et al, they refused.
Obviously, the fact that FactCheck et al lied about this issue should be a big story, but it’s not “interesting” or “legitimate” enough.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
“For instance, where BHO was born has not definitively been proven”
If frickin’ Sarah Palin didn’t think it worthy of questioning, that’s definitively proven.
Mike
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I am seriously concerned that no one else seems to take as seriously as I do the dilemma that Barack Hussein al Majlis Muhammad Obama X has not been sufficiently proven to be a biologically Earth-born organism.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Conservatives will never have good reporters until journalism pays a lot more than it does now. You can’t get conservatives to work for that kind of money.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
So shithead shows up and provides as a perfect example why there is never going to be a conservative tpm muckraker.
Re-read and try and process the difference between investigative reporting and your moronic jerk-off.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:36 pm
But, interestingly enough, they apparently got even that story wrong.
Argh, well, nobody honest involved in typography for the last 50 years would agree with that, David in Nashville.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
“Obviously, the fact that FactCheck et al lied about this issue should be a big story, but it’s not “interesting” or “legitimate” enough.”
Yes, you’re absolutely right. The only reason CNN (let alone Drudge) wasn’t reporting that FactCheck, the state of Hawaii, and everyone else were lying about a potential president forging his own birth certificate and illegally running for office was because it wasn’t *interesting* enough. A story like that with any truth to it whatsoever *definitely* wouldn’t get ratings, right?
“And, when I asked them to confirm the assumptions of FactCheck et al, they refused.”
In other words, you personally asked the state of Hawaii to waste their time dealing with someone as oblivious to reality as yourself, and they didn’t answer you. Sounds suspicious!
May all our right-wing reporters be as this one.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
The funniest thing about birthcertificategate is that it would take just one person, like myself, who was born in HI to request a duplicate certificate and see that it’s precisely the same as the one Obama says was provided to him by HI. Fortunately, most of us in that position are more than willing to stand aside and watch idiots sully their careers by referencing it.
As far as Digg goes, their algorithm is woefully bad at allowing folks to call things that are partisan be called inaccurate and be buried. No clue why they didn’t see fit to deal with this; I guess Digg preferred to sit out the election cycle and lose hits from folks who would be interested in seeing what political sites are popular. It was impossible to have anything favorable to either party reach the top of Digg and not immediately be buried regardless of being factually correct.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
The right doesn’t lack outlets or skills to do the job - it lacks content. In 2008, as they had been for several years running, Republicans were far more corrupt and far less competent than Democrats. A right-wing TPM quite simply wouldn’t have the comparable material to deal with.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
1. Regarding the “credibility” of Huff and the rest, I wish I’d taken screenshots of all the stories from “liberal” sites that were on Digg’s frontpage marked as inaccurate. In one case, almost all of them were.
They were marked inaccurate by the Republican/McCain bury brigade on digg. During the election season, the whole site was a competition between Obama’s and McCain’s people.
McCain’s team usually lost in trying to bury stories from the front page but they were successful in marking some stories inaccurate. This does not mean that they actually were inaccurate. Do you understand how digg works?
I see that you are a big fan of “Barack the Magic Negro” humor. White people ripping on minorities sure does tickle the funny bone in conservative social circles. I hear Homeland Security even has funny costume contests too!
I feel to provide you what a real parody looks like, compliments of Jon Swift and at the expense of wing nut bloggers.
http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2008/10/great-moments-in-election-year-blogging.html
Xenophobia is alive and well in 2009 at 24Ahead.com
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
When Great Liberal Intellectuals Attack!
Of course, MattY’s smarter readers will note that nothing said after my last comment in any tries to argue against my points, but instead are simply childish LogicalFallacies akin to those employed by MattY and his employers.
Obtaining a cert that looks like the one on BHO’s site isn’t proof of anything; the only way to verify the cert on BHO’s site is to have it verified by the issuing agency, something that has not been done. In fact, in their communication to me, the state of HI included the part of HI law forbidding such a verification.
And, of course, just because others don’t want to deal with an issue for one reason or other doesn’t imply anything about the issue other than it’s too hot for some to handle.
And, of course, if the state of HI had confirmed where BHO was born as FactCheck claims, then it would have been just as easy for them to confirm that as it was for them to issue a no-comment.
Does MattY realize just how bad he makes himself look by offering posts full of holes, which are then followed by childish arguments in the comments?
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
“the only way to verify the cert on BHO’s site is to have it verified by the issuing agency, something that has not been done. In fact, in their communication to me, the state of HI included the part of HI law forbidding such a verification.”
I’m not sure if you realize the logic here. It was not verified in the manner you requested. They told you why it wasn’t by showing you the law that specifically forbids doing so. Is Hawaii law part of this conspiracy?
Anyway, feel free to get back to us on why every single respectable media outlet of note, including major right-wing ones, did not find the story of a president who legally cannot take office interesting enough to bother reporting. Or, why his Rovian-led opponents, who accused him of being un-American and a terrorist sympathizer in the process of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him in a desparate effort to win, never brought up that surely very interesting and relevant point.
I mean, you do have an answer for that right?
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Let me be the first to issue a bold cry for the conservative funding world to give a great deal of money to Lonewacko to create the TPM of the right. Millions and millions of dollars, if at all possible.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Adam admits more than he should with this: It was not verified in the manner you requested. They told you why it wasn’t by showing you the law that specifically forbids doing so.
Now, compare that with this statement from FactCheck (factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html):
Update, Nov. 1: The director of Hawaii’s Department of Health confirmed Oct. 31 that Obama was born in Honolulu.
If you think about that, you’ll see there’s a conflict: FactCheck is claiming that she verified where he was born. Yet, HI law says she can’t verify where he was born, as Adam admits.
Refer to the link I provided above for all the details.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Uh…. We’re not all stupid there Libtard.
I happen to run my own fucking Blog. I picked out and installed a prefab template and I added my own damn widgets.
So, fuck you.
Idiot asshole commie.
-Pat
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
@Al
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/palin_claims_obamabiden_democr.php
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/obama_hits_back_on_pregnancy_r.php
Are the only articles that come up searching for “Trig” at TPMElectionCentral. Agreed that it’s stupid. If I were one to speculate on minimal evidence about controversies irrelevant to anything, Sullivan’s train of thought (it must be Bristol’s child!) still wouldn’t make more sense than a few other possibilities.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
The right-wing blogosphere will always fail, because (1) conservatives are just wrong about most stuff, and (2) online you can actually look things up pretty quickly.
Online: “Hey is that really true?” “Let’s check Google” “Oooo.”
FOX News: “Hey is that really true?” “Oops, next sound bite.”
Right-wing talking points only work well when the facts can’t be easily looked up.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I happen to run my own fucking Blog. I picked out and installed a prefab template and I added my own damn widgets.
What the fuck do you want, a cookie? You have a blog that no one reads, like millions of others (including myself). No one gives a shit. Like most conservatives, you’re probably really, really good at following the shiny-thing-of-the-day that appeared on the Drudge Report and Instapundit and posting it on your blog. People capable of doing anything else tend not to be conservatives, or at least end up not that interested in doing anything journalism- or research-related.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
People will start reading conservatives’ “own fucking Blog”s if and when they can’t be summarized as “AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!! FUCKYOU FUCKYOU FUCKYOU FUCKYOU DIE DIE DIE LIBTARDS COMMIE SCUM YOU SUCK AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!”
Because that gets kind of old after a while.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:39 pm
The only thing wrong with rfv’s otherwise fine suggestion in #25 is that such an infusion of money would likely obviate its recipient’s trollwhoring here. And what a loss that would be.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Al says: Birth-certificate-gate is among the dumber conspiracy theories
Of course, there are many varieties of that “gate”, and the one I’ve been concentrating on only concerns the fact that FactCheck et al have lied about the 10/31 statements from the state of HI.
Perhaps Al would care to review #26 above and then restrict himself simply to trying vainly to provide an argument contradicting my claims.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Wow, Pat sure raises the level of debate with some good ole Commie name calling and four letter tirade on his awesome blog with widgets.
http://www.politicalbyline.com/2009/01/02/greg-sargent-goes-to-washington-post/
No wonder the Right sucks at not just governing but organizing in the online world with followers like this promoting intellectually bankrupt arguments on progressive sites.
If you are going to attack on the road, at least bring something that does not make you look like a punch line of a joke. Hell, you just end up proving Matt’s points with your silly obscene insult comments. Being snarky or smart ass with disagreeing views is OK but just being a vulgar prick as your main argument displays you have found a perfect home in running a “righty” blog.
I noticed the other GOP blogger refused to counter my earlier comment on this post. He must be too busying preparing another birth certificate lawsuit or digging up another “link” that proves Obama is lying about being born in Hawaii. Um, so why do right blogs suck again? Oh yeah.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Mac G’s thoughts might at first seem insignificant, but they actually reveal a couple of mental failings that MattY and many of his commenters have. First is assumption that someone must belong to a Party. Second is the use of strawman arguments.
Regarding the latter, my contention is simply that BHO hasn’t proved where he was born, despite what some sources try to pretend.
Unfortunately, understanding the differences between my contention and the strawmans constructed by MattY, some other commenters, and others would take the combined mental might of the entirety of CAP, including the “Walking Crays” of MattY and Jennifer Palmieri.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Let’s recall the Atrios nostrum that conservatives are just people that other conservatives say are conservatives, or something like that. Which means there cannot possibly be a popular conservative web site which does anything but adopt the conservative frame of the day. Day after day after day. Stray off the farm and your excommunicated.
One cannot get out in front when it’s your bread and butter to follow. And God forbid that you use facts. Name me a big story in the last year that card carrying conservatives could possibly have been out in front of. Listen, the right isn’t called reactionary for nothing.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
MNPundit, I do hope you’re kidding (I can’t tell — maybe you are). Josh Marshall’s job ISN’T to get Democrats elected — he’s a journalist. A journalist who openly admits to being liberal and who offers his opinions on stories, but a journalist nonetheless. TPM exists mainly to expose corruption. Saying that the purpose of being a liberal blogger is to “defeat Republicans” is an enormously cynical way of looking at the work he does.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Which means there cannot possibly be a popular conservative web site which does anything but adopt the conservative frame of the day. Day after day after day. Stray off the farm and your excommunicated.
One cannot get out in front when it’s your bread and butter to follow. And God forbid that you use facts. Name me a big story in the last year that card carrying conservatives could possibly have been out in front of
Matt, shouldn’t moderate and intellectually honest conservatives be addressing this point? I’d be curious to know if a Sullivan would agree with the comment posted by rapier…i know i certainly agree with this
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Nice to see reasonable Al show up to dispute the newest MY crazier-than-Hannity commenter, “24HeadDot.ifonly.JackBauerwere.preznit.com”
Because, as we all know, if Obama wasn’t born in America, the shrinking violets of the GOP attack machine wouldn’t dare touch the issue.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Certainly, the lack of true conservative reporters is part of the problem. But the larger problem is a lack of stories to cover. With all due respect to TPM - and I love TPM - covering the scuminess that is modern conservatism is easier than covering liberals doing liberal things. Corruption, torture, cover-ups, lies, rampant hypocrisy…these are the hallmarks of the Republican party, and the material never stops flowing.
When the true face of Republicanism is exposed, people are disgusted. This makes for good media. When the true face of liberalism is exposed, people are, well, not shocked or disgusted. It’s just kind of…regular news.
Beyond that, Blagojevich, Jefferson and other corrupt Dems are adequately ripped by in MSM - and the liberal blogosphere. Corrupt Republicans, on the other hand, are just so damned numerous that a place like TPM can dedicate itself to covering their exploits full time.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
MESSAGE TO EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS:
When counting the electoral votes, either Congress finds by 1/8/09 that Obama, not being an Article II “natural born citizen”, fails to qualify as President whereupon Biden becomes the full fledged President under 3 USC 19 (free to pick his own VP such as Hillary) or thereafter defers to the Supreme Court to enjoin Obama’s inauguration with Biden becoming only Acting President under the 20th Amendment until a new President is duly determined.
The preferable choice, at least for the Democrats, should seem obvious.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Beyond that, Blagojevich, Jefferson and other corrupt Dems are adequately ripped by in MSM - and the liberal blogosphere. Corrupt Republicans, on the other hand, are just so damned numerous that a place like TPM can dedicate itself to covering their exploits full time.
Too often, Righties and Republicans tend to reserve judgment on their crooked brethren until some point in the future when it all just goes away. Thereby cementing the Corrupt Right narrative that has dogged them.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Mike Fisher:
“I am still surprised that Obama won the election despite the numbers of people listening to Right Talk Radio and reading web commentary. Did an enormous number of people quit listening or did they just ignore them and vote for Obama (and Democrats overwhelmingly)?”
Mike, right wing talk radio became really big around 1990. We have had five presidential elections since then. The Democrats won the popular vote in four of them. (And please don’t say they won the first two only because of Perot; polls showed he drew from both parties.) Fox News has been around for three presidential elections; the Democrats won the popular vote in two of them.
The truth is that the influence of right wing talk radio, Fox News, etc. on general elections has always been overrated. There have always been a large number of conservatives in this country. The “new” right wing noise machine has not *added* to their number at all, as far as I can see. It has mobilized them more in GOP primaries, and thus has moved the GOP further to the Right, but if anything this has helped the Democrats…
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:40 pm
You don’t actually read the left-wing blogs, do you?
As my Gran’Dad told me… keep right and you’ll be right.
I recommend a daily prescription of:
powerlineblog.com
justoneminute.typepad.com
formerspook.blogspot.com
mudvillegazette.com
gatewaypundit.blogspot.com
michaelyon.blogspot.com
poorandstupid.com
judicialwatch.org
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I think we need to reflect on the history of TPM, while Josh is left of center, TPM was an objective news site - Bush and the GOP antics pushed them over to the left. Remember Josh was pro-Iraq war.
Needless to say, TPM will be gathering a lot of hate from the left when they hold the Democrats to the same processes and methodology that they held the Bush Administration to.
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Interesting set of comments.
From this conservative’s perspective, the left does not have any “competent journalists”. The left does have many people “in media” but real journalism is rare. The slanted, biased, viciousness that passes for CNN/MSNBC/NYT/Time/Newsweek journalism can be effective with an audience that is looking for liberal cheerleading… but real people interested in facts, issues, events, and ‘identified opinion pieces’ go to other sources for their news.
Witness the economic failure of NYT, Time, Newsweek… and the fact that CNN & MSNBC are consistently trailing Fox news in viewership.
January 4th, 2009 at 12:18 am
In the end liberalism is self-defeating and will prove to be so, the worst problem with the right in America is that it has been infiltrated and subverted by the left in the same manner as the rest of Americas Institutions, colleges,media,business,Congress,Senate and almost any others you can think of. The one institution remaining which is now under heavy attack and the one where the majority of the Conservatives are now known to be are the ones who really believe in the Basic Unit of True Social Culture which is the FAMILY.
January 4th, 2009 at 12:33 am
You see, The Bush is not a conservative, neither was his Father the Other Bush, both are World Government Subversive Liberals and Probably Socialists in Truth and not appearance only. Most tend to forget how strongly Bush Senior pushed the New World Order and the U. N. and World Court. Any views of this type is not Conservative because they are Anathema to Conservatism which is Nationalistic in Nature whether or not it has some elements of Socialism included. Also most everyone quite possibly has forgotten how Bush Senior talked about his other Son he was so proud of, and I guess you know who that was, ( Bill Clinton ). Quite Possibly Barackee is going to follow in their footsteps with more promoting of the Worlds Interests over the interests of the citizens he is supposed to be working for, however it may not prove to be so also especially if he really is interested in his Adopted Country and its interests first. Going to be an Interesting World the next few years, just glad as hell I saw all this coming years ago and have been prepared a long long time. I will try to keep up from the outside but may not have the time.
January 4th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Hey Matt, your commenters suck.
January 4th, 2009 at 3:47 am
So-called “conservatives” prefer to live in their self-created fantasyland.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Hey Matthew, look here:
‘Cause being caught in an easily disprovable lie by Michelle Malkin must really suck.
January 5th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Conservatives have always been less interested in
reporting as opposed to commentary, because
conservatives are usually highly interested in making
lots of money. And though top reporters are now paid
quite well, unless they are network anchor material,
they will not be making the millions that pundits
make.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Matthew,
Pwned.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/04/who-says-conservative-bloggers-dont-do-reporting/
You don’t have to like Malkin, but the facts make you look outright foolish. Methinks a mea culpa is needed.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Ha. Matt did specify “legitimate” news stories. Malkin has listed all the same conspiratorial nonsense the right has been hyping for months and complaining that the biased media won’t pick up on. Case in point the “yeoman’s” work on Obama’s ‘credit card fraud’ because his web site didn’t ask for a DNA sample and notarized proof of citizenship before taking your donation. What a “scandal” when his site clearly complied with election law.
She also includes “investigative” work on supposed anti-semitism by bloggers with MyBO sites. Much like pointing at obscure DailyKos diaries to tar the whole site, I’m shocked that the MSM didn’t pick up on this “scoop”
Finally she credits NRO staff members for their investigative blogging. When you work for a full fledged magazine on wingnut welfare salary I don’t think you really count as a counterpart to Josh Marshall.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Re: Schmoe
He wasn’t pwned at all. Most of the stories listed on that Michelle Malkin link either didn’t involve real investigative reporting (Good litmus test: if you found all the information for your reporting using Google, then it’s not “original reporting”) or it was for batshit crazy conspiracy theories that nobody cared about. For instance, one of her examples is that some conservative bloggers dug up some paper written by Obama’s father in order to prove that Obama was a secret communist. That blogger is just as much an investigative journalist as the 9/11 Truthers.
More on this here:
http://bloggasm.com/someone-should-inform-michelle-malkin
–Simon
January 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Simon and Dan D,
Wow, way to completely ignore pretty much everything said.
“Patterico’s Pontifications, run by L.A. County prosecutor Patrick Frey, racked up several scoops in 2008 and published a wide and deep variety of original news reports — ranging from an exclusive on William Jefferson’s bribery charges to several posts investigating the 9th Circuit Justice Alex Kozinski online obscenity controversy (see here here here and here) to extensive investigations of the questionable ethical conduct of L.A. Times writer Chuck Philips (see here and here).”
“Speaking of Franken, conservative blogger Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed scooped the national media on the comedian’s tax troubles so many times (examples here and here) that even the NYTimes had to acknowledge him.”
“Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee/Pajamas Media published several original reports and scoops — including the op-ed the NYTimes refused to run and an interview with FBI informant/Weather Underground insider Larry Grathwohl, and early in the year, the results of a massive FOIA request related to the Beauchamp controversy.”
This is just a subset and the minority of it is analysis, with the majority being original reporting. But feel free to half-ass comment on it with rhetorical labels. I don’t blame you, thats a lot of material to actual question on its merits.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Re: Schmoe,
Yeah, those are some pretty good examples, but the vast majority of those links that Michelle pointed to were for either bogus stories nobody cared about or there was no original reporting done. For instance, Michelle credits herself for doing “original reporting” on the Gwen Ifil “conflict of interest” story, when she didn’t do any reporting at all. All the information that she printed had been known for months and could have been collected using Google. In fact, dozens of blogs pointed this out when she first churned up the fake controversy.
Compare this to Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo, which were publishing investigative and original reporting on a daily basis. There’s a reason that TPM won a Polk award and why Michelle Malkin hasn’t. When she and other conservative bloggers are ready to play with the big kids, then maybe she can lay claim to investigative skills, but she has embarrassed herself so many times with false reporting that she has a lot of credibility she needs to build in the meantime.
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