If by “New Technique” they mean “actually reading stuff before writing about it.” But this article is correct that a lot of the news-management techniques of the Clinton White House, which were predicated upon manipulation of the behavior and habits of the mainstream media, would have been markedly less effective if there had been a blogosphere back then.
3 thoughts on “Bloggers Use New Technique”
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Ironic that you would attack the press during the Clinton era when so many of our Bush scandals were ignored by a mainstream media that is too scared to ask too many questions about Bush and Co.’s motives.
Bush sold the bogus Iraq war through a gullible media which bought the WMD lie hook line and sinker, including the allegedly liberal New York Times, which (through the corrupt Judith Miller) splashed high school journalism on the front page and set the tone for media coverage throughout the country. The Times is as responsible for this war as Rumsfeld.
All administrations, this one included, knows that during times of war the media is afraid to get too aggressive. No one covered the Downing Street Memos which showed that the administration was lying about its motives for the Iraq war. This and other scandals (civil liberties abuses, etc) are exhaustively covered through blogs and independent web sites while trash television rules cable news obsessed with celebrity and one-shot criminal cases that have no national impact.
Each administration manipulates the media, which sympathizes with those in power. I doubt any administration is as manipulative as the Bush administration. Crank, when are you going to call shenanigans on Bush and Co.? Are you afraid of being called unpatriotic if you do?
Crank, this looks like yet another panic sign from the right. Sort of….”hmmm, things look bad. We lied lots to Congress, Schumer is plotting all sorts of ways to get Rove. Aha!!! Let’s blame Clinton.”
Also, I love this musing by Bush that he hates the loss of “presidential power.” You know, the thing FDR did that the republicans hated him for. Of course, they also hated the fact that he actually planned for postwar Japan and Europe.
The media are lazy and selected for looks not their journalistic ethics and writing ability. Katie Couric is doing the nightly news, nuff said. All PR operations depend on a lazy media, which corporations and politicos have all figured out, both sides of the aisle. The thing that ticked most neocons about Clinton is he was as good at staying on message and talking points as the Republicans, which is rare in a diverse party of ideas like the Democrats. The blogosphere is also figuring this laziness out (see how many times tv personalities…let’s not call them journalists anymore…read straight from the Drudge report and refer to it as “some say xyz, how do you respond?” even if it is ridiculous)…basically, the news delivery machine is more partisan and more focused, and I’m not sure that this is not a good thing…I get more in depth coverage at DKos than the nightly news or CNN…and I come here to see how “the other half” reads those same stories, and I believe I am more informed because of it…