For those interested, Hugh Hewitt will be interviewing many of the bloggers responsible for bringing the Rathgate scandal to the media fore.
And Lileks.
5 PM EST. You can listen to a live stream here.
****
update: Good news! Thursday, 5:43 AM MST, I’ll be appearing on the very popular local public access show, “Good Morning, Denver Suburbs,” to discuss the best way to fry up hashbrowns. A preview: think lard.
Hmmm. Little Green Footballs down on the day that the memo report is released? Coincidence? Oh, I’m sure.
And how much do you want for that bridge?
Holy pop-up hell! Don’t click on the middle link – I just got bombarded. And I have pop-up blocker, too. Wily bastards.
“GOOD MORNING, DENVER SUBURBS” IS MY MASTER!
HASHBROWNS ARE MY LARD AND MASTER!
Crap. “Morning prayers to Pat Boone” is on at the same time. It’s cool, I guess I can TIVO it. I owe you that much.
Let me ask you all something: is a blog “real” if it’s not mentioned on Hugh Hewitt?
I’m thinking no.
Great moments in blog history, from Hewitt’s latest:
In other words, “Make with the outrage or I’ll find other people to pimp.” I guess it’s just me, but when I read shit like that it makes me more inclined to defend the report, not less.
Is it just me, Jeff? Don’t tell me you’re not itching to piss in the punchbowl.
C’mon, he’s a frickin’ Browns fan and he’s militant about it. Art Modell took the real Browns out of there years ago and he still pretends there’s a Steelers rivalry. Obviously delusional.
Allah —
Did you listen to the show? He phrased that “challenge” this way: “Who will be the INDC Journal of this part of the story?”
I’m really really really feeling why you hung it up.
Scott —
You know I’m from Baltimore, right? Bitch.
To make matters worse, who does Hewitt single out for abuse here? Geraghty. Geraghty, who owned this story and who’s been flogging CBS harder than any blog that doesn’t have the word “Rather” in its name. Every time you turn around these days you’ve got another post from Glenn or Hugh or someone else blowing smoke up our asses about how blogs are so much more thoughtful than the MSM. And so here comes Geraghty, putting some real thought into his reading of the report and deciding, what do you know, it isn’t a complete left-wing snow-job … and Hugh slams him for it.
The whole thing reminds me of the Jon Stewart/Tucker Carlson dust-up with Hewitt defending the bomb-throwing, shoutdown style of “journalism”. What we need now is a good-looking Jewish comedian to step up and tell him to “stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.”
Jeff, that Jew could be you.
Oh, that’s right, you still have family there. See, I can justifiably work up a healthy hatred of the Ravens because I think Modell is slime. Cleveland, and Hugh because how snide he’s been, I just pity.
But I’m with Allah. You’ve got a great niche here and to put it in recording parlance, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and start throwing in a few 4 minute Skynyrd-type dueling guitar solos to attract those out there who will never get it. Are you willing to do that or do you want to keep it pure Joo?
My Turing word is audience. I love it.
Allah, you read that eaxctly right.
On the next segment, not only did Hewit ask who my replacement was going to be when I didn’t give the answers he wanted, and ask if smaller bloggers were going to take the opportunity to rise up, but asked if the Heinsenberg Principle was in effect, that our corruption by success is making us softer on the MSM.
As if I’ve been corrupted by all of the women, riches and cushy media jobs thrown my way after Rathergate. Which actually … well, there aren’t any.
I guess I just don’t have the requisite outrage.
I didn’t get the whole Heisenberg connection anyway. It stated you could either know where something was or its path. WTF?
I have a great idea who can carry the torch from here. How the fucking people who get paid to do it? Everybody with a cushy book deal, raise your hand…
I AM A CITIZEN JOURNALIST AND HUGH HEWITT IS MY MASTER!
PAT BOONE SHALL SING MY THEME MUSIC!
His analogy had something to do with the momentum in the Principle, I guess.
How about the fucking people… sheesh.
Here’s what Geraghty gets for the hundreds of hours of labor he’s put in on this:
I suppose you’re right, Bill. But I think it didn’t have anything to do with anything bigger than a frickin’ quark.
Wow, Jeff, Pat sure got demoted quickly. Isn’t that blasphemy or something?
Hugh’s gone a bit crazy lately. The whole jihad against Target lost me big time.
I ordered “Blog” at Amazon.com the other day and it hadn’t shipped yet so I just cancelled it. Hee hee…
AS A DEPUTIZED CITIZEN JOURNALIST I COMMAND YOU TO REORDER BLOG (IN FINE BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE).
Right, sir. Will do!!!!
<mutters under breath while walking away:>
frickin’ Raven lover…
That plays right into this. In both cases, he seems almost intoxicated by the power blogs have to Make Things Happen. We’ve all had moments like that, to be sure, but to see it taken to a point where thoughtful criticism is deemed illegitimate when it can’t be used as a bludgeon against one’s ideological enemies is fucking creepy. Not to mention hugely deleterious to our credibility.
I really think that, Allah, you are finding somethign in Hugh’s schtick that isn’t there.
In part I understand Hugh’s point, which is that CBS gave us 50% and we are acting like we won a huge victory – Hugh wants to see the other 50%. So he’s slapping the team on the ass a bit.
I think that what has happened is that the 50% concession from CBS has intoxicated a lot of people used to the major networks getting away with admitting nothing.
And the rest is just Hugh being a contrarian to make some radio drama.
Re: “Pat Boone Shall Sing My Theme Music”
Well now, this explains your recent interest in someone with computer/recording chops.
In case you haven’t already written your theme, well, I have a few lyrics lyin’ around.
I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that session…
In part I understand Hugh’s point, which is that CBS gave us 50% and we are acting like we won a huge victory
I love how the goalposts move. We fought tooth and nail, for over a month, as the MSM tried to spin the story completely away, as it looked, time after time, that they’d slip responsibility, and now that 4 employees (2 senior execs) have resigned and Dan rather and the CBS brand are shamed, it’s only 50%?
Bullshit. At other points in time, Rather giving up the big chair and Mapes getting fired would have been a miracle. A practical analysis of the situation begs, what else? Heyward’s resignation? Sure. Rather? Rather isn’t going anywhere, and he’s been effectively defanged and shamed. And we can scream until the sun comes up, but there is only so much practical momentum and public outrage that can be harnessed to make any further goals happen. The law of diminishing returns.
And I think we’re nearly tapped out. The results are a Hell of a lot better than 50%.
The results are brilliant, largely due to Bill and Geraghty. Hewitt’s reaction is analogous to the MSM’s reaction to the Afghan elections. Pre-invasion, it was unimaginable. Now it’s on page 13.
Um, no complimenting other bloggers on this site. Such ingratitude WILL NOT STAND.
So sayeth the Leatherclad One.
Leatherclad?
Excuse the reflexive spelling correction. English teacher conditioning. And Goldstein is my master. Goldstein is my master. Goldstein is …
Amen to what Bill said.
(Tho it would be nice if Heywood got the axe too!)
– Intersibling squabling is a good and neccessary component of a demonstratably successful campaign…
Note to protagonists: “We Won”…
(Now if we can just get our hands on all of Jeff’s Boone CD’s and deep six them in the nearest dipsey dumpster all will be right with the world)….
Someone should remind Hewitt about the vinegar versus honey adage with regard to catching flies. The left lost the last election cycle primarily because it was beholden to shrill idealogues like Michael Moore. With the Target fiasco and now this, Hewitt is approaching Coulter status as a shrill righty.
Shrill gets attention, but not the good kind.
Okay, so the shrill part gets left behind. Who’s going to hold Lockhart’s feet to the fire for lying about his phone calls with Burkett? And where’s the outrage over the obvious coordination with the Kerry campaign?
Exposing CBS as fuckups, liars and has been great–my hat’s off. And I don’t know Hewitt from Yglesias. And it’s not yours or Gerahty’s or the Divine Creator’s responsibilty to continue this crusade. But let’s not pretend a lot of folks aren’t tiptoeing away whistling under their breath.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Pat Boone Adoration Comittee?
Who’s going to hold Lockhart’s feet to the fire for lying about his phone calls with Burkett? And where’s the outrage over the obvious coordination with the Kerry campaign?
Spongeworthy –
We all know they colluded (those inclined to admit it), so my question for you, and Hewiit, would be:
What is teh practical way to hold them accountable? This is how I work, in practical, obtainable terms. Pointing it out and bitching about it is an essential part of the process, but I’m sure many blogs will have this aspect covered.
Hewitt wants a new crusade, and I just don’t see enough gas to get us there, especially considering “there” (the practical objective) isn’t even defined.
Sheesh…geekward ho up in this muthafuck. While you t-weenies decide the future of this faggotass blogosphere, this fool’s gonna go scour the couch cushions for those little rubies that hijack sensory perception and turn it into the Wonkatania.
“There’s no earthly way of knowing…”
Bill: couldn’t agree more. The war against blatant media bias isn’t going to be won in one battle. Obviously there was collusion, but aside from literally making a “Federal case” out of this, what further steps would even be possible?
I think you and many others should rightly consider this a victory for honesty in American media coverage. And a personal victory in your case. So trying to flog this dead horse any further, as Hewitt espouses, taints the thing and throws a true partisan pall over it.
Bill, you and I know that Rather/Mapes colluded with the Kerry campaign but no one outside of the small coterie knows that there is even an issue of that left. And the MSM spins that away as we see.
Again, I think that people are misinterpreting Hugh’s point which is not that we didn’t win a huge victory but that this battle needs followup.
That and Hugh is trying to piss you guys off enough that you’ll write about him.
I work in an achievable framework. You, nor Hugh (and I asked him on his show), have been able to define an achievable objective, aside from maybe “get angry.”
I don’t agree that the issue is an achievable objective. And I am not necessarily going to agree with Hugh on such goals. As far as action is concerned, my opinion is that we got 90% with these firings. Far more than I hoped for.
I’m really not in Hugh’s camp on this, Bill. I just think that reactions to Hugh are missing the target. I think people are taking Hugh’s line as attacking their fine work on this.
The issue remaining for me is whether or not the original critics – us in the blogosphere – endorse the partial whitewash that the report is. And I think that in the excitement of the announced firings people are missing this.
Any truth to the rumor that Hugh stopped his Target jihad after Lilek’s consigliari paid him a visit and he woke up with a horse’s head in his satin-sheeted bed?
As for Target, I’ve been bad-mouthing them since the Shari Dally murder in 96.
Hugh Who-it?
– Bill, guys, I think I sense a concern that as soon as the dust settles from the bones that the MSM have thrown to quiet the snarling dogs, it will be business as usual. I think not. The blogsphere is here to stay. The liberal establishment knows it. The pajamahadene has already caused the mighty to modify their behavior. Thats a huge victory, but I don’t think anyone is ready to sit back on their laurals and let it die. In fact what I see to some extent, is the usual tendency for the self same press to get on the bandwagon and eat their own. Who among us would have invisioned even having this convo a year ago. Nada….Enjoy….good job…major change in human communications…
Bill’s right to look for an achievable objective, I think the best we could hope for is credibility, theirs and ours. Allah nailed it with this.
Credibility. Bill still has his. CBS is trying to win it’s back. But those who heed the call to follow Hugh on “some damn fool idealistic crusade” may have to surrender theirs.
I guess it comes down to whether you think the problem with the press is that they’re sloppy and sensationalist or whether they are hopelessly compromised by their biases. If you think they’re sloppy, you have won a great victory and you should see the rewards in better media factchecking.
If you think they’re bought and sold to the Democratic Party, then there’s still a lot left to do. At minimum, Lockhart should be forced to kneel, hell, grovel before Pat Boone.
At minimum, Lockhart should be forced to kneel, hell, grovel before Pat Boone.
Go for it, dude. Put your money where your mouth is. Make it happen.
Hey, I hear you. I have come to terms with the prospect that you have the healthy perspective and I do not. For some reason you are fulfilled and I need to see Lockhart humiliated. I’m not claiming to be the arbiter of blog-success or anything. I just hate to see small, shitty people get away with stuff.
Fuck it, that’s why I drink so much anyway. I need an excuse. Today it’s Fat Joe Lockhart.
Well, if it’s any consolation, Lockhart was sort of humiliated on Nov. 2.