This is one of those Blogosphere Wildfires that doesn't really need much input from me. Professor Glenn Reynolds (author of the Instapundit blog) and fellow bloggers have thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of Newsweek regarding the false report about personell at Guantanomo Bay flushing Korans down toilets.
Start here at MSNBC's GlennReynolds.com, hop over to the Instapundit blog here and just start scrolling down until you reach the May 16th postings, then dive in. Don't miss the barroom brawl that's broken out between the Blogosphere and Adam Cohen & friends of the New York Times re: "Ethics and Blogging" as referenced in Glenn Reynold's May 9th posting here. I should not forget to thank Ingrid over at Uganda Watch for breaking the news early on May 10th here.
Ain't blogging just grand? And you thought that nobody was listening. Me? I'm just going to sit back and read and listen. I love a good fight as long as nobody gets hurt. This is better than that new TV series Deadwood that ethiopundit was writing about the other day.
Mandela, Mobutu & Me
5 years ago
4 comments:
Newsweek seriously messed up. They showed very shoddy journalism and deserve to be condemned for that. However it's worth noting that, what they retracted was "that an internal military investigation had uncovered Qur'an abuse at Guantanamo Bay."
They didn't say that the 'Koran abuse' definitely didn't occur, only that they were wrong to say a military investigation had uncovered it.
It also makes you wonder why the government refused to even comment on the allegations when originally asked but once the story was run, they denied it vehemently.
Thanks for the input Brian. Nothing that our or anybody else's government does makes me wonder anymore. John Norris Brown over at the University of Tennessee had a nice follow-up on his blog re: the Newsweek Koran (Qur'an?) debacle. You and he do not share the same political views obviously but it is an interesting viewpoint from the political right. Here's the link: http://johnnorrisbrown.com/blog/2005/05/on-newsweek-debacle.htm
What's even more interesting for me are the "dogfights" breaking out between bloggers and journalists. Apparently some of today's news media professionals feel that unwanted and unqualified outsiders have invaded their turf.
The smart people on both sides will realize rather quickly that it is a phenomena (blogging) that could benefit everyone who is interested in and has free access to information and knowledge. Let's see where this all goes.
Viva El Revolucio'n! Guerrilla Journalism is making a comeback!
"Apparently some of today's news media professionals feel that unwanted and unqualified outsiders have invaded their turf."
I'm aware of that sentiment. I also know that people in positions of power tend not to like to be challenged. Especially something like the mainstream news media which styles itself as the watchdog of the establishment but are really part and parcel of that establishment.
Well you are certainly breaking the mould being a professional journalist writing for the Blogosphere, and from what I've read so far at your place you are doing a really fine job too. No kidding.
I am constantly having to re-adjust and edit my thoughts before I post and sometimes afterwards in an attempt to stop clowning around and get serious using the basic writing skills at my disposal. Then there is all of the ambient Deutsch chatter around me much of the day. It's rough.
Waiting for the Calvary to arrive and relieve me soon so that I can do less writing and get into the real meat of blogging:
"Executive Blog Producer/Director"
Post a Comment