The Media's BDS: Blogger Derangement Syndrome
Glenn Greenwald documents some of the big names that have caught it - and it all seems to be about David Broder, as far as I can tell.
It's funny, because I think most of the blogs absolutely revere good journalism and smart punditry. One of the guys I have liked and praised is Jon Alter, even though I have disagreed with him from time to time. I think Joe Klein has been living up to his talent this year, and yes, I think Klein is very talented and very smart. So when they say things like this and this, I can only chalk it up to BDS, Blogger Derangement Syndrome, on which Atrios has more today. Jon Alter's statements are really shocking:
There's one dimension of the blogosphere that never ceases to amaze me: Some people disbelieve nearly everything they read in the "mainstream media" -- and believe nearly everything they read online. Never mind that the ground-breaking reporting on which they base their opinions often comes from the MSM publications like Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
Who are these "some people?" Let me be blunt - if this is an example of the political reporting we get from the MSM, and it is, it never ceases to amaze me that someone as GOOD as Jon Alter would choose to defend it. There are "some people" of course. But that is not Alter's insinuation. It is most bloggers he is thinking of. And that is just false. Bloggers have practically built churches for reporters and pundits like Dana Priest, Paul Krugman, Ed Wong and yes, for good strong reporter/pundits like Jon Alter.
Here is a strange debasement by Alter, loweirng his batting average to that of the execrable Broder and the, at best, pedestrian, Tom Edsall:
Why do I bore you with this? Only to reinforce the point to be careful of believing everything you read. Just because it's in Radar or online somewhere doesn't make it true. The same goes for reading me or Tom Edsall or others who happen to have worked at first-rate news organizations. But our batting averages--and David Broder's--are a helluva lot higher than the Jebidiah Reeds of the world, which is only one of the reasons why the readers of Huffington Post are lucky to have Edsall aboard.
Well, Alter's batting average is not bad and he is, dare I say it, one of my favorites. But he got pissed and it creeped into his piece. He is BETTER than David Broder and Tom Edsall. A lot better. IF what he says is true, then I can understand his anger at the Radar Online reporter Jebidiah Reed:
At the restaurant, a group of us had lunch. I explicitly told Reed that it was off-the-record, and he explicitly agreed. (Not a good habit to get into, Jebidiah, screwing with that one.) I should have known better than to trust a reporter I didn't know, but throwing him out of the lunch so that Gravel and I could talk didn't seem sporting. Reed quotes me as uncomfortably saying, "I have to get going," when one of Gravel's comments about the Bush daughters was supposedly too mind-blowing for the clueless pundit to absorb. The only problem with that rendition was that because I had to catch a plane, I ordered my lunch before everyone else's and stayed much too long for the time I had allotted. I took my leave (paying for Reed's lunch, plus that of the Gravel entourage) at a different point in the conversation than reported in the story, but accuracy would not have fit Reed's thesis any better than it did in the case of the sidewalk chat.
If this is true, then Reed has some 'splaining to do. And Alter is right to be upset. But, as Greenwald points out, Alter's defense of Tom Edsall does NOT wash:
I don't remember [Edsall] calling Broder "the voice of the people," but if he did, it was said with a pleasantly arch tone, neither serious nor sarcastic.
This makes no sense. And it is shocking that a good reporter/pundit like Alter would write those words. Yes, they are Gonzalesque.
My theory? It was BDS; blogger derangement syndrome.
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