Reply #37: The Year Of Blogging Dangerously -

[dzika]

The Year Of Blogging Dangerously

By Edward B. Driscoll, Jr. Published 12/27/2004

-snip-
So…from the home office in San Jose, California, allow me to present, via my 1972 IBM Selectric and my jammies, the top ten events that ricocheted through the Blogosphere in 2004. They're presented in order of importance, not chronologically; no doubt, you'd assemble a very different list; but I trust you'll agree with at least some of these choices.

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6. The Exit Polls: On Election Tuesday, depending on whom you want to believe, either the networks or the Kerry camp released mid-afternoon polling data to several extremely prominent Websites, including Matt Drudge on the right, and Anna Marie Cox's Wonkette Weblog on the left. The result added even more of a roller coaster quality to an already manic day, leaving Kerry voters temporarily euphoric, and Bush supporters in a state of sullen disillusionment.

After the election, the legacy media tried to use those polls to discredit the same bloggers that they previously built-up, particularly Ana Marie Cox's Wonkette site. But as Blogger N.Z. Bear noted, Wonkette carefully indicated that all those poll numbers come with "grains of salt. Huge tablespoons of salt", and reminded her readers they still had time to vote. As Bear wrote:

"Other than simply publishing the poll numbers under a banner which screamed 'PACK OF LIES', what more could possibly be expected to warn readers that the information they were receiving had not been fact-checked to death and should be viewed as potentially suspect?"
(see: http://billhobbs.com/hobbsonline/cat_voter_fraud.html)
(see: http://www.truthlaidbear.com/archives/2004/11/18/blogs_and_old_media_a_spectrum_of_standards.php)
(see: http://www.wonkette.com/politics/campaigning/a-little-birdie-told-us-024776.php)


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4. Campaign Violence: While the Websites of individual newspapers and TV stations posted stories about break-ins and campaign violence, few seemed able to put the pieces together and notice that the vast, vast majority of violence was directed from the left to the right, as shootings, break-ins, and even "spontaneous" riots occurred in numerous GOP headquarters across the country. In October, Frank Martin noticed that it smacked of desperation tactics: a campaign that's sure of victory usually battens down the hatches and runs a tight ship (to mix maritime metaphors). The prior month, Nashville-based Bill Hobbs assembled a section on his blog that tracked all of voter fraud, as soon stories were spotted occurring. He ended up with over 60 entries in a month and a half.
(see: http://varifrank.com/archives/2004/10/_what_do_winner_1.php )
(see: http://billhobbs.com/hobbsonline/cat_voter_fraud.html )


Link:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/122704A.html