Blogger in the Eye of the Beholder?
The NYT manages to understand that the Republicans went overboard with their attacks on Graeme Frost. But there’s something else they don’t seem to understand.
In recent days, Graeme and his family have been attacked byconservative bloggers and other critics of the Democrats’ plan toexpand the insurance program, known as S-chip.
[snip]
But Michelle Malkin, one of the bloggers who have stronglycriticized the Frosts, insisted Republicans should hold their groundand not pull punches.
“The bottom line here is that this familyhas considerable assets,†Ms. Malkin wrote in an e-mail message.“Maryland’s S-chip program does not means-test. The refusal to doassets tests on federal health insurance programs is why federalentitlements are exploding and government keeps expanding. IfRepublicans don’t have the guts to hold the line, they deserve to losetheir seats.â€
As for accusations that bloggers were unfairlyattacking a 12-year-old, Ms. Malkin wrote on her blog, “If you don’twant questions, don’t foist these children onto the public stage.†[my emphasis]
You see, according to the NYT, if someone does something so far beyond the pale that all sane people would object, that person must be a blogger.
To be fair, the first known attack on the Frost family came from a Freeper. And Michelle Malkin did use her blog, among other outlets, to attack the Frosts. And a lot of conservative bloggers piled on. So it is absolutely fair to say that bloggers were among those that attacked the Frosts.
But Malkin is much more than a blogger–she pulls regular gigs at Fox News, and was a syndicated columnist (you know, NYT, in newspapers?) long before she every started a blog. And Rush, who piled on top of all those bloggers to attack the Frosts? Offensive, certainly, but not a blogger. Furthermore, there are signs that the whole campaign was coordinated by that McConnell staffer who is now relieved he didn’t release a press release on the Frosts. Senate staffers are not primarily bloggers, they’re political operatives. And rather than explain all these things–rather than note that Saint Rush joined the fun of attacking a 12 year old kid–the NYT just used shorthand that, conveniently for them, distances this kind of behavior from anything that would show up in dead tree (or cable or radiowave) media. That way, the NYT doesn’t have to look too hard to find the logic of the attacks, it can just blame it on stinking bloggers.
This is not new, of course. But it’s something I’ve become more attuned to lately, partly because I just explained to a bunch of lawyers that most of the lefty blogosphere finds Malkin’s "ethics" just as reprehensible as any journalist does, and partly because of a spat I had with a local journalist who makes similar errors.
There are some investigative gems about the Blogosphere just waiting to be found by intrepid reporters.
For one, how about noticing that the Lefties tend to have their stereo remote within reach of their keyboards, whereas for the Righties it’s their AKs.
We on the Left have long endured and patiently suffered the Oppression of â€things not going Our way.†I’m sad to say, but we’ve learned to keep shuffling along under the Beat Down – We can ’ride-it-out’ better than BushCo can ’oppress.’
Not so on the Right. Those folks are on a roller coaster of fear about Losing Control. And, they aren’t taking it well, either.
So, even a cursory glance at the general Blogosphere would show the Left, hanging out on couches with laptops and popcorn – and the Right crackling and smoldering like the wind picking up before a storm.
While it might be advantageous to the Business of the New York Times to disparage the Blogosphere with ’one-size-fits-all’ smears regarding professional standards, their Editors ought to also weigh the cost of sweeping a rapidly developing and combustible situation under the rug…
The thing that is scary is that with the Frost’s address published on kook-wing blogs, there is a danger factor beyond the harassment and stalking of the Frost family. I tried calling the school and some other mutual friends and have not yet found that there is anything beyond the nasty phone calls and no concerted defense plan yet. Hopefully the news cycle will pass and the collective freeper memory will be short enough.
But I imagine that the fear will be there for a long time to come.
The right-wing kooks do this. I have never seen lefty blogs calling for picketing or harassment of a family. Indeed, when Malkins’ info was published in response to a breach of hers, it was quickly deleted. When a blogger camped out in Bill O’Reilly’s driveway there was much criticism.
It is hard enough to have privacy in this day and age without that lack going hand-in-hand with threats.
We need a way to fight back without further spotlighting whoever is being swift-boated at the moment. This situation – where the victim is a 12 year old and his family – disgusting.
Somehow this reminds me of the dust up Chris Matthews had on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week. The singular value Chris wrote his book by was winning rewarded by $.
Just as you point out in your article, ’the only currency we have is our reputation’ Jon pointed out to Chris what a lonely world it is where nothing has value that does not have a check attached to it.
The cute part is how I was attacked… I said it on my blog and I’ll say it here. I wasn’t defending SCHIP, not at all, I was defending that families right to privacy. That’s why I put malkin’s real address, Phone number and Arial picture of her house on my blog. I removed it after a reporter for the Baltimore Sun asked me to kill it, because they were doing a story on Malkin.
If Malkin wants to try painting me as moonbat, fine. I’ll just paint her as the right wing fascist that she is.
Hardliner
Are you the one who posted her address? The reason the lefty blogosphere objected is because the last time that happened Malkin turned it into a victimization complex, arguing she was being targeted (with physical threats, she said) unfairly.
In any case, everyone (including Malkin) ought to be entitled to privacy in their homes.
Yeah, the Frost family owns their own home and also owns a small commercial property. So why shouldn’t they remortgage their house to extract the equity from it, thus incurring monthly payments they probably can’t afford on an annual income of only $45,000 (for family of six) in order to pay the enormous premiums for private health insurance that would be demanded in light of their childrens’ pre-existing conditions? Why shouldn’t they sell the commercial property that probably is their means of livelihood, such as it is? Because government health insurance is SOCIALIST!!! The Frost family is the leading edge of the slippery slope. If you give them health insurance, next thing you know, more American children might be HEALTHY!!! Can’t have that, no sirree.
Oh, and by the way, given how often Michelle Malkin has published the names and addresses of people she finds inconveniently critical, I have no sympathy for her pleas of victimhood. I do believe that Rethugs like her believe in an eye for an eye — an address for an address is not nearly so harsh.
Yes, this violates her right to privacy, but I think she waived it long ago.
This reminds me of the degradation of the word hacker. In its original form a hacker was someone who understood computers well enough to make them work in clever ways that mere mortals couldn’t (think of a hacker as a computer wizard). But when the media got hold of the term â€hacker†quickly morphed into â€electronic criminal trespasserâ€.
Chris
Interesting point. In the case of the word blogger, I suspect it’s because journalists don’t want to face up to the degradation of their profession. Do you think there’s anything similar with hackers? Big corporate computing companies not wanting to admit the vulnerability of their software, maybe (and I say that as someone who is, genetically, an IBMer)?
While and eye-for-an-eye only seems right as the cost of personal infringement, its long-term consequences are harmful – ie, it would make everyone blind.
In situations where the foul has already taken place – like Malkin-Frost, constructive criticism would connect Malkin to Frost and link their destinies – if harm comes to Frost via Malkin’s vendetta-enabling tagging of Frost’s home, then Malkin is Liable to both the Courts and Our Moral Sensibilities.
If We apply the ’gets what she gives’ treatment here, the only thing really accomplished is to double the total exposure to harm and violence – that could quickly become fashionable, and rapidly get out of hand.
The emotional response is to get her info out there, too – but that’s pot and kettle reactivity that only leads to escalation – â€Pot, you righteous bastard, you’re black-er!â€
We need to rally everyone Above that level of behavior by calling-out Demonizing, everywhere.
Chris makes an interesting comparison between the way traditional media transformed the meaning of the word ’hacker’ and what they are trying to do with ’blogger’. I don’t think they will succeed in making ’blogger’ a pejorative term. Succeed isn’t quite the right word to use, it implies intention and most reporters don’t realize what they are doing.
I’ve always been fascinated by how subcultures will often take pejorative terms from the mainstream and use them as positive identity badges (religious minorities do this a lot, e.g. Baptists, Mormons, etc.), but are often powerless to control the meaning of their own phrases. Traditional media has always played a big role in this process. In the case of ’blogger’, the shoe is on the other foot though. The traditional media is trying to protect its own subculture against what is now (or soon will be) a numerically larger group. They think they are defending the gates against the barbarians, but time is always on the side of the besieger, not the besieged.
Would you object to a reporter going to their home or place of business? The Baltimore Sun certainly did just that, even included pictures. Would you object to a reporter looking into the means of someone receiving public funds? What if they were say, Blackwater employees rather than woodworkers?
In this case, doesn’t it seem a little bit worse because a blogger (private citizen) did it? Isn’t the fact that she wasn’t doing it for a press outlet what made it seem more uncomfortable, more stalker-y? That’s the way it seems to me.
I don’t find much different in this situation with what DailyKos did to one of its users awhile ago. They found her personal and identifying information, shared it among themselves, posted much of it on the site, where it remains for all, went to her home, contacted her employers and others, followed her, posted sightings of her, and Markos took no action at any time to stop it or to remove the offending information from the site. He never alerted her to what was happening. When she discovered it and demanded for it to cease the hatred, vitriole and venom that was spewed at her by the â€progressive community†was breath-taking in its ferocity. Markos finally took action – he banned her from the site. None of the people who participated ever identified themselves to the victim.
I have a real hard time when anyone involved in politics tries to claim a moral high road, because the hate comes from all sources, is directed at people without the means to defend themselves from it, and it still goes unchecked. The sole difference is that the Dems/progressives hate under the a cloak of phony righteous indignation.
Michelle Malkin is only a blogger in the sense that her publications appear in a blog format. She is not a private individual but regularly featured contributor to TownHall.com, a spin-off of the Heritage Foundation. Known payola recipients Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus were also TownHall and Heritage contributors along with Malkin. which begs the question: was Michelle Malkin compensated by anyone affiliated with this administration to sic her fatuous hordes on the Frost family?
It is satisfying to see that morality does still exist (I expect nothing less of this place), and I mean that in sincerity. The problem is that, sometimes, holding the moral high ground does little more than make the moral feel good about themselves. I have proven that myself a painful number of times.
What we have seen over and over is that the â€right†can’t be shamed, even by the criminal court system. The only thing that seems to affect them is when their own tactics are used against them.
This tactic they are using is very dangerous.
As morally repugnant as it may be, all it will take is a few tit for tat to send them crying â€you’re cheating, I’m tellingâ€! Which tends to stop the bad behavior.
Sometimes you gotta’ stop arguing with the bully and hit him back. It usually only takes once or twice.
would love to see a lucha libre femme fatal go one on one with Michelle Malkin,…..oh what joy….where’s my popcorn.
Alyx — Us mucha libra femme fatales have certain limits, unlike our opposition. She is not worth the energy it takes to do more than press the OFF button on the remote.
First off, as to publishing people’s physical addresses: Back in the day, I read a novel about farmers and the railroads in the 1890s. The big, evil, capitalist railroads won, but here’s the important point: Halfway through the book, the farmers were given a tempting offer. They took it. Near the end, their moment of weakness came back and kicked them in the butt, hard!
Lesson of the day: Lefties can’t get away with squat. We must be on the morally correct side all the time. We can never afford to make exceptions or to say â€Just this once.â€
———–
Anyway, I wanted to pass on an amusing story about bloggers. I read a right-winger describing â€bloggers†as eating Domino’s Pizza and drinking Mountain Dew. I told my buddies â€Nooooo. That may be true for right-wing bloggers, but lefty bloggers eat trail mix and drink green tea!â€
Well, that version of the story was fine for awhile, but then a young woman at work corrected me â€No, no Rich. Remember, women like chocolate!
So now I tell folks â€but lefty men like trail mix and green tea, lefty women like chocolate, but yeah, they like green tea too.â€