Bloggers Be Gone!

Well, it’s official. Mainstream journalist and media types can’t wait for the death of Internet Bloggers. But the question becomes “why?” The mainstream media, all except for the N.Y. Times and the Washington Post have all decided to ignore the problem of another conservative plant in the media named Jeff Gannon. Here, under the pseudonym of Jeff Gannon, James Guckert was able to infiltrate, with obvious help from someone inside the White House, the White House Press Room after being turned down for a Capitol Hill press pass. Guckert was allowed into these press meetings with the President of the United States as well as other important high ranking government officials without being scrutinized by the FBI. Yet, cable and network television, except for Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, have studiously avoided that a highly conservative plant was allowed to penetrate the inner sanctum of the White House Press Room without proper background checks or credentials. It appears that the only credential he needed was his political ideals, decided conservatively, because his politics were the right ones to bypass red tape and protocol. How can the mainstream media just sit while an openly partisan journalist penetrates the White House, asks the President soft questions about the economy, Social Security, and the war in Iraq without an uproar?

Much of the research on Guckert aka Gannon was done by bloggers and the mainstream press and media, rather than doing an investigative report on how the media is being manipulated by this administration, spends their collective time calling for the end to blogs and bloggers. For the sake of argument, it is clear that the only real free press exists on blogs and lies in the hands of bloggers. To be sure, there are very strong conservative Internet sites equipped with their bloggers, but the liberal free press has all but died except in publications like The Nation and of course Internet blogs. Why the mainstream media is bereft of hungry, young journalists’ intent on making a name for themselves a la Bernstein and Woodward is hard to understand and quantify. Where are the journalists and media hounds that went after Bill and Hillary Clinton just a few short years ago?

What began as a place and a means for private people to post their very private feelings about public people or politics has in fact become a place for intelligent, well researched, and yes, politically motivated “news” that is sadly and distinctly missing from the mainstream press and media. Until the air of repression lifts from the national media, owned largely by wealthy conservatives, until this administration is open to questions of every type from journalist and citizens who are seeking answers about public policy or our society, then the power and effect of blogs and bloggers should continue to grow to protect our freedoms and to ask the hard questions.