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Bloggers Who Crave the Mainstream Media's Attention

By Christopher Hayes, ChrisHayes.org. Posted May 4, 2007.


The New Republic magazine makes a play for the progressive blogosphere, but it was In These Times that earlier got the story right.

If you’ve been paddling through the intertubes, you’ve probably seen mention of Jonathan Chait’s 8,000-word cover story about the progressive blogosphere and the netroots. I’ve read it and think on the whole it’s good, and makes some very perceptive points. It also suffers from some strange delusions and misconceptions, which writer Matt Yglesias does a good job of taking apart.

That said, what’s interesting to me is the different reaction this piece is getting, in which it is Topic A on a whole host of blogs, and the reaction to a somewhat similar cover story my colleague Lakshmi Chaudhry wrote for In These Times last year. While Chait’s piece offers an analysis of someone situated just inside the mainstream, beltway, pundit establishment, Lakshmi’s piece was an analysis (and in places a critique) of the netroots from the perspecitve of the activist, progressive left. The piece was exhaustively reported and, I thought, really spot on in picking out some of the vanguardism, cliquishness, and meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-bossism of the emerging netroots. (Qualifier to be distributed throughout this post: generalizations about the netroots can be a fool’s game and it is a remarkably unwieldy phenomenon, so anything anyone says about “the netroots” is going to necessarily incomplete or partially inaccurate.)

It’s not like Lakshmi’s piece was ignored, it certainly sparked some discussion, including a single sentence dismissive swipe by Kos, but it didn’t become the kind of central topic of the liberal blogs in the way Chait’s piece has. And I think the reason is this: Chait’s published was in the The New Republic and Lakshmi’s piece was published in In These Times. On the surface you might think the netroots would be more interested in a critique from one of their own than from a magazine that’s been more or less waging war against them for years. But that’s the opposite of the truth. The strange thing about the netroots, and something that was made very clear to me at YearlyKos, is that the prominent members of the blogosphere have a real deep complex about their relationship to the “mainstream.” Their feelings (again, generalizing) towards the mainstream pundits, TNR, Joe Klein, Tim Russert et al, is similar to the way a pimply, awkward 14-year-old-boy might feel about the hot, mean girl in his class. He judges her harshly, thinks she’s vapid and cruel, and desperately wants her attention.

From the perspective of power politics, I can understand this obsession with the MSM. A publication like TNR, dwindling circulation and all, has influence, and In These Times doesn’t. But that’s something of a self-perpetuating state of affairs now isn’t it? Exactly the sort of cycle of elite self-confirmation that the netroots is best situated to disrupt.


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Christopher Hayes is currently a Senior Editor at In These Times, a Contributing Writer at The Nation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute.

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The De-Centralized Nature of Media is an Allergic Reaction to Avoidance of the 9/11 Cover Up by Medi
Posted by: BillDouglas on May 4, 2007 4:18 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In Jurassic Park the Malcom, the Chaostician, said, "Nature finds a way."

So long as Alternet and the other so-called "left" media bizarrely ignore the obvious lies about the events of September 11th, which enabled a permanent war economy, the stripping of civil liberties, and a huge drain of resources away from human uplift . . . people will continue to find innovative ways to "go around" traditional media.

People have a deep thirst for truth. Anyone who's spent time actually researching the official story of 9/11 . . . soon realizes that we have been lied to on many levels about 9/11.

The Jersey Girls, the 9/11 widows, became famous fighting for the 9/11 Commission's creation, and then being horrified later when Bush forced his confidant Philip Zelikow into running that "investigation," against the protests of the 9/11 families.

David Ray Griffin, is Professor Emeritus of theology, and theological scholar and author, wrote "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions" which eviscerates the 9/11 Commissions sham of an investigation, that is obviously a cover-up with the least research into it.

As the truth began to come out, then the corporate media, and even much of the so-called "left" media, like Alternet began offering pieces like the one Josh Holland wrote, taking side long slaps at people who question the official 9/11 story. Many relied upon hit pieces by the official 9/11 story mouthpiece "Popular Mechanics." (A Hearst Publication, of "I'll give you a war" yellow journalism fame).

Now Dr. Griffin has offered an even more brillian book to answer this media smear of anyone clear minded enough to challenge the spurious facts of the official 9/11 story, entitled, "Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory". Now #710 on Amazon and rising daily.

Today in the top 10 most popular google videos is a 9/11 cover up expose called "Revisiting 9/11." This is amazing. In the top 100 of mostly naked girl videos . . . a video documentary requiring significant attention span has risen up in those ranks to the TOP 10.

Some like Josh at Alternet would have you believe that if you question 9/11, you are deranged and misguided. However, the only reason there is such huge demand for 9/11 truth and deep research into it that is emerging more and more daily . . . is because everyone's BS meter is going off the charts, because it is so obvious that the official story simply does NOT add up.

At a websited called PatriotsQuestion911.org you'll see over 100 military and intelligence, engineering, and aeronautics experts who know we've been lied to, and many saying outright that 9/11 was an inside job.

Documentaries free online like, 9/11 mysteries, 9/11 revisited, etc. are being viewed by millions daily as kids are now passing them out on college campuses, in shopping malls, and of course across the internet.

However, Dallas Maverick's owner, Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures is about to do a major international release of the 9/11 cover up expose "Loose Change" that will unleash a well deserved outrage across America.

Millions of people new to 9/11 truth will be so angry, when they see Loose Change, and realize that their corporate, and even less corporate "alternative media" has been part of the biggest cover up in history.

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» the 9/11 Cover Up Posted by: LMNOP
» RE: the 9/11 Cover Up Posted by: Joshua Holland
The New Fourth Estate
Posted by: wawa on May 4, 2007 4:33 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
THAT DAY we call 9/11, was the day, the Fourth Estate went limp.

Instead of seeking WHY did a few people in the world hate us so much as to target and murder innocent people, the media became secretaries to and conduits for Big Brother's propaganda.


The New Fourth Estate are the civilian journalists; bloggers; seekers and reporters of truth and we do NOT take orders from editors, corporations or conglomerates.

Some of us are also breaking historic news:

On April 30, 2007 , in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, Mordechai Vanunu was convicted on 14 -out of 21- counts of violating a court order prohibiting him from speaking to foreign journalists in 2004.

This civilian journalist wonders if Vanunu will next stand trial for "30 Minutes with Vanunu" which has been freely streaming on WeAreWideAwake.org since May 2006.


http://www.wearewideawake.org/

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Followed the links
Posted by: UnEasyOne on May 4, 2007 5:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Refuse to sign up for New Republic tho. Still, I think I get the idea.

What I would add is that while the wingnut blogosphere beat us to the punch and for a time had much greater influence on the national dialogue and political atmosphere, the influence was that of a wrecking ball. Drudge and his silly hat crowing about the blue dress.

Since talk radio had long been dominated by the right and specializes in propaganda, the wingnut bloggers had a ready megaphone to spew forth whatever vomita they excreted and since the MSM pretends to moderation but is virtually wholly owned by right wing billionaires this crap regularly found its way into the mainstream. No wonder they had a head start. It takes longer to build than destroy - especially since the implements of destruction are all around, begging to be used. Ask any Iraqi.

Move On took longer to build and it was in response to the trumped-up Clinton impeachment. Similarly, Media Matters was a response to the lies, distortions and outright rightist propaganda that has come to pass itself off as news in the corporate media. I could go on and on.

The MSM hasn't changed - yet. It is, however showing signs that it's withering - rotting at the roots. And the netroots? We scare hell out of the smart ones - they haven't figured out what to do about us at all. Meanwhile if we can keep the internet free, the days of one sided discourse ended with a bang in the 06 elections - and the politicians know it.

They were primed to immediatly cave on the war funding bill as soon as Bush vetoed it - now it's a fight. Investigations abound in spite of the sage pronouncements of the Broders that "the American People" wouldn't like it. The attorney scandal is exploding, despite the complete disinterest of the MSM for months. On issue after issue, the MSM makes it's pronouncements about what we want, what we think, what is true and what is false. Then we set them straight.

They haven't really been relavent for a long, long time - but they were the only game in town, they didn't care. Their bosses were happy and they could get away with it. That is history!

When the tide has turned, it isn't that obvious for awhile. Nov. 6, 2006 was high tide for the rethugs. Now it's our turn.

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TNR: a rightwing rag in progressive clothing.
Posted by: HughScott on May 4, 2007 11:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here’s the straight skinny on The New Republic(an) magazine [TNR].

Prior to Gulf War 2, unsigned TNR editorials expressed strong support for military action, citing the threat of Iraqi WMD. After President Bush proclaimed the end of major combat operations four years ago, the TNR editorial board, while critical of his handling of the war, continued to justify the invasion on humanitarian grounds.

Peter Beinart, TNR editor-in-chief from November 1999 to March 2006, is a prime example of the magazine’s stealth rightwing bias. A 1993 Yale graduate and Rhodes Scholar, he was a vocal supporter of Bush’s insane war of choice.

In 2004, TNR endorsed Connecticut Senator Joe “Love Me’ Lieberman. Not coincidentally in 2002, Mr. Independent chaired the White House Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI) that was established that year by Bruce Jackson, a director of the neocon subversive organization, Project for New American Century (PNAC).

A rightwing hawk in liberal clothing, Lieberman rubbed elbows at CLI meetings with PNAC members Jeane Kirkpatrick, Robert Kagan, Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol and James Woolsey.

In their November 27, 2006, issue, TNR editors wrote in regards to the Iraq invasion, "At this point, it seems almost beside the point to say this: The New Republic deeply regrets its early support for this war. The past three years have complicated our idealism and reminded us of the limits of American power and our own wisdom."

“Complicated” your idealism? Well, complicate this, TNR. Stay in the print media business and leave the Internet alone. There’s enough rightwing bullshit on the Web already.

Hugh E. Scott, editor of King-George.biz -- the only website with hardcopy proof of White House corruption.

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Unity2
Posted by: Perfectclue on May 4, 2007 4:43 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When I was still in highschool, in the late 60's during the peak of the Vietnam War, the official line was that the New Republic was liberal, and so because I thought that there was only two ideologies, liberalism and conservatism, which turned out to be two class and business ideologies, that there was no other opposition. After subscribing to the New Republic, I wondered how they could be so corrupt, appeasing in their class nationalism, class imperialism, cheerleading, warmongering support for both Vietnam, and Israel.

I learned fast, that liberal war hawks, and their Zionist cheerleaders for Amerikan fascist foreign policies, had everything to do with their role as corrupt class elites, as appeasing class whores for both the class thugs of Amerikan Empire and fascist, Likudist Zionist, class nationalist thugs. I immediately looked around and found, then the most progressive, socialist, and democratic magazine, Ramparts, which nudged me closer to socialist, universal values, and democratic standards.

Today these same Zionists thugs, Neocon Christian fascists, so called "expert" idiots, which you hear on NPR zionist radio, are contributing, like Peter Beinhart, as the middle east expert, yahoo, who Bill Moyers called out, exposed as lying whore, recently in his documentary, the propaganda on the Iraqi war. The public needs to get a clue, when it comes to the establishment line, there are only only two rightward corrupting class centered ideologies, which both claim falsely to a social wealth principle and universal middlle class. There are two fundamental ideologies, one based on class despotism, and undemocratic, the other democratic and universally, socially oriented. Don't confuse the Stalinist, bureacuratic middle layers as Socialist, Marxist, democratic, or leftist, they have more in common with the middle layers corrupted by class power above, whether internatlly, or externally by global class society, hence the same result, parallel failures.

The fact that they strangle the real alternative, universal wealth creation, through a universal social middle class, without class master above, and exploited classes below, is used to deceive the public, that the failure of this existentaial alternative, is proof, as they falsely claim, that capitalism, is 'second to none". Translation: on the one hand they will not allow the real social principle to be impelemented, on the other hand, the failure is proof that their class despotism which prevents this alternative, is proof that there is only a primary class principle, which defaults to a secondary principle, because it fails so miserablly.

This is the false class propaganda, class ideology that makes up the Corporate Press, like the New Republic, NPR radio which uses "terrorist experts" from the bowels of state terrorism, in boht Amerika and Israel. The New Republic is the rot of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other class democratic candidates, liberal warhawks, who pretend at opposition, democracy, while leaving "on the table" the nuclear option, to justify aggression against Iran. You should listen to both Kuchinich and Gravels, when they describe this liberal class ideology, and its class whores, appeasing class thugs with the warning: "These people frgithen me."

For the New Republic to look for progressive bloggers, is like Hitler to bring in more Albert Speers, middle class professionals who whore for the class empire, for appearances, to ask, to pretend at democracy, while appeasing Corporate fascism, class imperialism, which these Zionist, and Christian class thugs cheerlead. The only way to keep your hands clean, from the blood of these warmongering imperailists, is to blog for alternative press, while boycotting the corporate news, class ideology, and deceitful opportunistic asses.

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Former Senator MIKE GRAVEL in 2008!
Posted by: johngary66 on May 4, 2007 8:33 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Check him out!

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GRAVEL/KUCINICH IN '08
Posted by: Roverton on May 5, 2007 3:55 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Make it a realistic idea.

That part is up to us, not the news.

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new Republic is liberal if you are right wing wacko
Posted by: whealeydj on May 5, 2007 8:56 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Right Wing thinks the New Republic is liberal as Krauhammer did in a recent column citing the 'leftist' Christopher Hitchens and the 'liberal' New Republic as also supporting the Iraq War. I though his column was lame as he singled out Hitchens who stood alone in left who supported the war it was typical half truth as seen by someone so far right he considers Clinton to be liberal/ left as well. My parents offered me a subscription to magazine in 1980s when I was in my 20s and I chose New Republic because I thought it was liberal. After a couple of years I realized they supported Reagan administration in Central American policy and asked for a diffeent alternative and started reading the Nation which meets my own standards of a liberal left magazine. I occasionally read In these Times but I think it is too far left i.e. overt Socialist for my taste so it does not surprise me that ITT speaks better on this topic but that more attention is paid to TNR

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TNR has zero credibility among the netroots & progressives
Posted by: doinaheckuvajob on May 7, 2007 12:26 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
But debunking and burying TNR in the ashes of history is a much pursued practice in the progressive netroots. That's why they get the attention. Like the DLC and Lieberman, they cry out to be discredited.

As to the story in In These Times, why did it get less attention? Because it got less attention.

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Bloggers Who Crave the Mainstream Media's Attention
Posted by: ravage on May 10, 2007 2:22 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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