Category Archives: Blogosphere

Boring journalism

The Seablogger makes a good point about the liberal media, which explains why FoxNews, the news that liberals and their running buddies in Big Media love to hate, has outstripped CNN and MSNBC combined in viewership: it is not boring. CNN, et al, have the same predictable la-de-da day after day. Comforting to the convinced, I suppose, but not very interesting to anybody else.

I’ve opined before that this could be one of the biggest problems newspapers have today: they are so predictable. Not only do they all look the same, having the same layouts, the same focus, etc., but they have the same NYTimes and WaPo stories on their front pages. We also know they’re all for diversity, multiculturalism, affirmative action, gun control, abortion, illegal immigration from Mexico, and that they just love Barry and Michelle, and distrust Republicans. So where do those who argue with some or all of that stuff–which is a lot of people, altogether–go? Well, the Internet, for one. And FoxNews, for another.

I kind of like it when CNN, et al, attack FoxNews for whatever. That is the way American journalism used to be. Newspapers not only tried to outdo each other, they attacked each other. And made $$$. But that was before credential creep, where every journalist now needs a degree from similar liberal journalism schools to get a Big Media job. Pity them not their decline. They fouled their own nests.

UPDATE:  A perfect example of how in-the-tank CNN is for Barry: You could compare W to Hitler and they’d never bat an eye. Do it to Barry and you get a microphone stuck in your face.

Austin’s Tea Party

The liberal daily did a fair job of reporting the local conservative-libertarian rally against anticipated higher federal taxes, the pork-barrel "stimulus," and other "change," which tied up downtown rush hour traffic, drawing people (according to the selected quotes) who had never marched before.

There were none of the overhead crowd photos reported in the conservative blogosphere, however–including the estimated more than ten thousand marchers in San Antonio and St. Louis–which readily show crowd size. Instead, there was an enigmatic quote from the state police that they wouldn’t estimate the size of the Austin crowd "for safety reasons." Huh? Interesting as it all is, I’m still not convinced that it will amount to much in the long run.

That DHS report

I got a little incensed when I read that the new, improved Dem-led Homeland Security octopus had singled out veterans as potential terrorists. Then I discovered the report was commissioned while Bush was in office and it only suggests that a small percentage of vets might be so disaffected.

And, of course, I recalled Timothy McVeigh, the wacko who the Army didn’t trust to allow to be a Green Beret. LGF, who I admire for his pro-Israel stance, has a sensible take on this report which seems to be roiling the never-very-placid waters of the rightwing blogosphere. He thinks the upset is way overdone. Includes a link to a PDF of the report itself and points to other, hardly leftwing bloggers, who agree. Makes sense. I’m convinced. Except for one thing. The report should have been aimed at extremism, not just "rightwing extremism." The obvious political bias is what caused the trouble.

World’s oldest statue?

worldoldeststatue.jpg

Seems, at twelve thousand years old, to be. So far, anyhow. But there’s more to come.

Via The Anchoress.

Mexican guns

Instapundit clings somewhat precariously to the military weapons wielded by the Mexican drug cartels to try to show that not all their guns come from the U.S. Fox News, to which he links, has apparently taken his side of the argument.Their concern, of course, is new gun sale restrictions here at home.

The San Antonio Express-News, while conceding that the military stuff probably didn’t come from our side of the border, nevertheless makes a convincing case that most of the non-military stuff that has been traced did–much of it from Texas retailers. Michael Yon has uncharacteristly attracted more than a few irritated commenters for wading into the argument. I’m glad he did, though. I know more now about it now than I did before. On the other hand, as Instapundit notes, some of the guns probably have come from Mexican army deserters.

We used to run in boots

But the Army did not, and does not, make commercials as good as this Marine one. As the H.E.B. checker-military brat joked one time when she saw my ARMY cap: "Ain’t Ready For Marines Yet?" Not on the recruiting score.

Why we kill Taliban

A harsh, depressing video via Michael Yon. Until you remember all the comrades of these scum we’re eradicating. Someday we’ll get them, too.

UPDATE: Or not. A new pro-Jihad magazine in North Carolina, of all places, has to make you wonder.