Hugh Hewitt is relentlessly pursing, to great effect, CNN's Eason Jordan's comment about the American military targeting and killing 12 journalists in Iraq. But will the mainstream media (MSM) catch on to where the blogosphere is leading? He scores an excellent point by pointing out the MSM's hypocrisy.
A search of Google News reveals 425 news stories on General Mattis' comments on shooting insurgents in Iraq. Gen. Mattis has a distinguished bio and is worthy of respect for his service to our country even if his comments may not have been particularly well chosen.
However, Eason Jordan's comments reveal only 3 news stories on Google News, and only one of those, the Washington Times, is a newspaper. Jordan's comments are now over 8 days old and were made in front of world leaders and journalists at the World Economic Forum. By contrast, General Mattis' comments were before fellow soldiers at the American Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. (His quote can be found here along with one of the few stories pointing out his audience.)
Has the MSM given up policing its own comments? Has it surrendered its responsibility completely to the blogosphere? This would be regrettable for its own future, transferring yet more credibility away from the likes of CNN and putting it squarely into the hands of the blogs.
UPDATE: Thanks for the link Hugh. Hugh Hewitt Readers, please click here to check out other posts, following Secretary Rice's foreign trip or Why Georgia Matters.
If Gen Mattis has only made
his comments as "Rap lyrics" the
left would have embraced them as
freedom of speech that ok's the
killing of officers (police officers)
If you only began with the MSM
publications and transcripts from
Jan 28th that covered Iraq elections,Kerry MTP, SOTU, Senate confirmations, Ward Churchill,
Gen Mattis, Eason Jordan, Toy
capture,WAPO'S Social Security
distortions with NYT Krugman's
echo,(this is where my head
explodes-- I am having visions
of Matthews,Regan,Garrapolo and
the HUG, mixed up with gunrunning
to the Kymer Rouge, and Condi
waving in a FUR COAT (Sec. Rice
is not going snow-blowing))
General Mattis could only wish
for such target richness.
Posted by: greer rants | February 06, 2005 at 12:15 AM