Why Blogs Live, and Must Grow

[#][#]

“As a news anchor at the highest echelon, Jennings had a front-row seat at the biggest events and stories of the last quarter century and, as the special repeatedly showed, he made the most of it, always taking his journalistic obligations to heart.”

Reuters eulogy for Peter Jennings, August 12 2005

"He established a level of trust with the viewer that would be difficult for anyone else to match going forward."

Tom Bettag, CBS News executive producer, quoted in the New York Times continuing attempt to canonize Peter Jennings

“Veteran newsman Peter Jennings was remembered Monday as an outstanding journalist, a hard worker and a man of conscience and integrity.”

CNN obituary for Peter Jennings


“Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don’t have to be dirty words: the nation can’t be run by an angry two-year-old.”

- The always-objective Peter Jennings' on-air national broadcast assessment of the 1994 midterm elections, when the first clear signs of the fall of Democratic Party from its control of the U.S. Congress

“Next week on ABC’s World News Tonight, a series of reports about our environment which will tell you precisely what the new Congress has in mind: the most frontal assault on the environment in 25 years.”

- DNC mascot Jennings’ unfounded indictment of the Republican-controlled Congress, 1995

“The President’s tax cut is beginning to show up. Will three extra dollars stimulate the national economy?”

- Economic expert Jennings sneers at the notion that Americans deserve to keep more of their own money, 2003.

“The Secretary of Defense said today that those people who are questioning the effectiveness of the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan are too impatient, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said much the same thing. The Pentagon is being pressed harder to be specific about what it has accomplished so far. The bombing campaign against the Taliban is now entering its fourth week, and the Taliban are still standing.”

- Jennings, noted military strategist, sneers at the war in Afgahnistan, 2001.

“This week we were surprised to see several hundred artists and writers walking through the streets of Baghdad to say thank you to Saddam Hussein. He had just increased their monthly financial support. Cynical, you could argue with this particular time, but the state has always supported the arts, and some of the most creative people in the Arab world have always been Iraqis. And whatever they think about Saddam Hussein in the privacy of their homes, on this occasion they were praising his defense of the homeland in the face of American threats.”

- Social guru Jennings explains how Saddam was really the victim, 2003.


And of course, no review of the Peter Jennings saga would be complete without a glimpse at his conscience and objectivity:

“We all have baggage, but one of the good things about journalists is that they recognize bias and work hard to keep it out of their coverage.”

- Jennings defends against charges of media bias, 2002.

(Source for all Jennings quotes, and there’s much much more)



Look, I’m not one for bashing a guy when he’s just died, but if you really want to know why the MainPain Media is losing market share and a steadily growing number of alternative resources are being sought for analysis and an overview, like Talk Radio, Cable News, and blogs of course, just look over these statements, and consider that, in the opinion of the speakers, they’re not lying. They really believe that bilge, and they promote it because it’s what they themselves are made of, at their core.

God save the blogs.