SwiftVets.com

[shawa]

From the high and mighty at CBS News(the paragons of truth)!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/08/opinion/main654285.shtml


BLOGGING AS TYPING, NOT JOURNALISM

PALMETTO, Fla., Nov. 8, 2004

(CBS) Eric Engberg was a correspondent for CBS News in Washington prior to his retirement two years ago.

As the election campaign unfolded, operators of some of the internet’s politics-oriented blogs, no doubt high on the perfume of many "hits" and their own developing sense of community, envisioned a future when they would diminish then replace the traditional media as the nation’s primary source of political news and commentary.

One of the more self-important of these blog-ops, Andrew Sullivan, declared in a newspaper article in September that the internet upstarts had become, along with cable-TV, the new "powerbrokers in American politics and culture," primed to unseat "old media." In another piece he compared the new and old thusly: "Critics of blogs cite their lack of professionalism. Piffle. The dirty little secret of journalism is that it really isn’t a profession, it’s a craft. All you need is a telephone and a conscience and you’re all set." That hubris was rampant through much of blogland as election night rolled round.

Big plans and big claims are to be expected from folks – pajama-clad or not – who are dabbling with new technology and new modalities of public expression. As a retired mainstream media ("MSM") journalist – and thus a double-dinosaur -- I don’t begrudge these knights of the blog-table their grandiose dreams. But I worked on a school paper when I was a kid and I owned a CB radio when I lived in Texas. And what I saw in the blogosphere on Nov. 2 was more reminiscent of that school paper or a "Breaker, breaker 19" gabfest on CB than anything approaching journalism.

From early afternoon to very late in the evening, those who checked in with the leading political blogs like Drudge, Wonkette, Andrew Sullivan, evote, mydd.com, Daily Kos, and others were given the distinct impression that John Kerry would win the election. The website Slate.com, well-funded and generally a responsible voice, joined in the folly.

The bloggers, obtaining through leaks partial, in some cases suspect snippets of information from the early "cut" of data gathered by MSM through exit polls, were spreading a story that the network and wire service bosses knew to be incorrect because their own experts – and their journalistic experience -- had warned them of the weaknesses in such data.

Kerry was "in striking distance" in Florida and Ohio, said the Drudge Report. The popular and smutty Wonkette site claimed it had "information" from "little birdies" showing Kerry up 52-47 in Ohio and 50-49 in Florida. "The national number that’s floating around right now: 51/49 K/B," wrote Wonkete, aka Ana Marie Cox. After repeating some of Wonkette’s numbers, Sullivan mused, "A Kerry landslide? Could be. Could be." He cautioned the numbers could be misleading, even as he was publicizing them.

This is the kind of stuff we used to run in my aforementioned school paper, when the speculation surrounded who was going steady. The difference is that the bloggers aspire to being a force in our public life and claim to be at the forefront of a new political-media era. It was clear to me, from following their efforts that night, that, unlike journalists, some blog operators who are quick to trash the MSM not only don’t care about the veracity of the stories they are spreading, they do not understand when there is a live hand grenade on their keyboard. They appear not to care. Their concern is for controversy and "hits."

The numbers they were bantering about election night were real enough, just not sufficient for responsible publication. They came from polling data obtained by the two companies organized and paid by the major networks and the Associated Press to interview voters at polling places in key states. About 13,000 voters are asked their choice and a series of questions explaining their decision. The networks get the information throughout the day, using it as one tool to make their "call" or estimate on who won the state. The key words here are "one tool."

Let me tell you a few things about "exit polls" as one who was there from the time they were invented and then watched them develop through the nine presidential campaigns I covered. Experienced journalists treat exit polls like hand grenades with the pin pulled; they are unstable and dangerous.

While out on the campaign trail covering candidates, my own network’s political unit would not even give me exit poll information on election days because it was thought to be too tricky for a common reporter to comprehend. If you are standing in the main election night studio when your network’s polling experts start discussing the significance of a particular state poll, you the reporter will hear about three words out of one hundred that you will understand. These polls occur in the realm of statistics and probability. They require PhD-style expertise to understand. The people who analyze them for news organizations, like the legendary Warren Mitofsky and Martin Plissner at CBS News -- have trade associations like doctors do to certify their work.

When you the humble reporter are writing a story based on the polls you need one of these gurus standing over your shoulder interpreting what they mean or you almost certainly will screw it up. There is a word for this kind of teamwork and expertise. It’s called "journalism."

You did not see any of the networks or the AP put out misleading reports of a Kerry lead nationally – or in the battleground states of Florida or Ohio. The editors, producers and executives who run these MSM organizations, in typical responsible, dinosaur fashion, know it would be wrong to do so.

As professional journalists, they understand the limitations of this kind of polling. The polling results from early in the day will not necessarily conform to late afternoon and evening voting patterns. They also understand that even as they lumber toward the extinction predicted by so many blog warriors, providing a false early picture of the returns can be bad for democracy. Oh, those backward, self-serious dinosaurs.

Slate.com is deserving of special criticism in this matter. That website is not a blog; it’s a well-established, well-funded and mostly responsible organization that qualifies as serious journalism. But, in what seemed to me to be a smarmy grab for election night circulation, Slate decided to go with leaked exit poll results, thus helping boost the amplitude of the bogus "Kerry leading" buzz on the web. Presumably, Microsoft, which owns Slate, has a few dollars jingling around in its budget which would have permitted its editors to join the official National Election Pool, which conducted and analyzed the exit polls. Many major newspapers did so. That would have given the Slate bosses access to the cautions being provided by the pool’s experts to the networks and other members about the booby-traps in the early poll numbers. Then they wouldn’t have put out a bunch of misleading figures.

The public is now assaulted by news and pretend-news from many directions, thanks to the now infamous "information superhighway." But the ability to transmit words, we learned during the Citizens Band radio fad of the 70’s, does not mean that any knowledge is being passed along. One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on.


By Eric Engberg ©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[dmackto]

_________________
Deborah
The FROZEN CHICKEN Journal

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.
- Winston Churchill

[FireFox]

2000

[Anker-Klanker]

Couldn't help but notice that every blog site he cited was a known lefty site. Maybe he should have visited some of the conservative sites. At the very least he would have seen a different (and correct in the case of Hugh Hewitt) analysis of the same leaks.

But, hey, what the heck, I already know that the lefty blog sites are run by nuts.

[1991932]

CB's rock!
_________________
Former "War Criminal"

[BuffaloJack]

If that means we can suck the life of the MSM that would be a plus.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[Kimmymac]

The SLATE <ack>... CBS complaining about the Slate...and defending themselves about the exit polls...ooohhh...I like it.

I love it when the enemy starts pointing fingers at each other. (No! You suck! No! You do!)

BWAHHAHAHA!

And: "Blogging as typing, not journalism" BWAHHAAHA!

You know you are about done for when you start whining about the whipper snappers not paying you proper respect.

So sorry! We are mere typists, rather than forgerlournalists like ya'all.

What does that make Jayson Blair? A scannerlournalist?

BWAHHHAAA!
_________________
The last refuge of scoundrels is not patriotism; it is finicky liberal humanitarianism.--Martin Paretz

[happyday]

Does this mean I'm toooo dum to understand that the statistical probability of an emu emerging from an anthill is greater than sKerry actually having this country's best interests in mind when he ran for CIC?

How do these guys live, if they have to have someone "interpreting" everything for them? What happened to gaining information and learning to draw your own conclusions? Are we too duum for that too?

I don't need anyone to "interpret" things for me. Thanks but no thanks MSM.
_________________
God Bless America, and God Bless the Swiftees!

[sleeplessinseattle]

The rules of the New Media (NM) are being defined as we all move along...but the Old Liberal Media (OLM) has become obsolete and irrelevant...no need for rules there any longer because they just don't matter to a majority of Americans...IMHO, going forward we'll be a land with a vast array of news and analysis options - many on the right/center, many on the center/left. Americans will reward those outlets that provide consistently pertinent and useful information and analysis - Hugh Hewitt and Powerline are 2 examples on the right - hmm, can't think of any "useful" on the left (can someone help with that?)

As those outlets are rewarded with more readership and a following they will grow in resources and capability, further usurping the OM. The natural decay and death of the OM is well upon us and their very willingness to be tools of the left will speed their own obsolescence and death and the rise of the NM. The OM will fight and moan about their own death, just like any old animal would which is dying...
_________________
"We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail." -- President Bush 2001

Thanks W, Swifties, POWs & brave soldiers everywhere fighting for America and for freedom

[wwIIvetsdaughter]

I didn't see Mr. Enberg mention the blatant lies (Memogate/MissingWeaponsgate) fostered on us by the OLM..the NM is here to hold the OLM's collect feet to the proverbial fire! The Founding Fathers would be proud...the 1st Amendment in Action!

[Kimmymac]

Ben Franklin used "New Media" (the printing press) when he printed copies of Thomas Paine's fiery 'Common Sense', a pamphlet with a wide distribution to the 'common man" i.e., "red staters" like you and me.

The Establishment was very angered and annoyed that the "rabble" dared to challenge their authority, and Paine was denounced for inciting the ignorant, red-necked masses to Revolution.

And thus America was born.

Now stand aside, Establishment dinosaurs, while we take her forward into freedom again.
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The last refuge of scoundrels is not patriotism; it is finicky liberal humanitarianism.--Martin Paretz

[GenrXr]

All I know is the bloggers called the electorate about 12 hours before the MSM did and called it accurately. In my opinion this is good journalism.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[Hammer2]

Another member of the dominant media culture who dosen't get it. The real story in the exit polling was how quickly they were picked apart and found not credible even befor the real vote tallies started coming in.

On the web, we practice swarm journalism. Thousands of people independently vetting stories will arrive at the truth, no matter how carefully it is concealed. Mr. Engberg's vaunted PHD's and statistical experts are no match for masses of people checking facts independently.
Sure, some people just want to propagandize for their candidate, just like CBS. The difference is that credibility in the bloggosphere is earned by accuracy in reporting.

What Mr. Engberg does'nt like is that the process of vetting is carried out in public on the internet and tends to be a messy, noisy process, but then free markets usually are. Unlike in the dominant media culture where stories emerge only after carefull behind the scenes processes that are not open for public inspection. There, the sources of information and the motives of the people involved, the editorial selection process, the obvious political bias of so-called experts are not open for public inspection. The public is told to "trust the professionals" and accept the version of reality spoon-fed to them by the dominant media culture.

What Mr. Engberg can't stomach is that the Rubes have figured out they don't need his kind anymore and can find the truth out on their own. Old Joe Goebbles did alright when he owned the German media, but if the internet had been around in those days Adolph Hitler would have ended up as a retired Austrian house painter.
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"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence" - Thomas Jefferson
"An armed society is a polite society" - Thomas Jefferson
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it won't be needed until someone tries to take it away." -- Thomas Jefferson

[shawa]

IMO, the bloggers pick up on the Old Media's LIES,
raise questions, and then prove them WRONG!

No wonder they're crying.

Far from being PARASITES, the right-thinking bloggers
should be called THE TRUTH SQUAD!!

HOO RAH!! Go get 'em Bloggers!!

[carpro]

Just wondering how long it would have taken for Dan Rather's documents to be exposed as fake without the internet and bloggers...if ever.
_________________
"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."