America - Attack on Blogs

Does the recent surge in attacks on blogs by MSM have anything to do with bloggers superior reporting on the Air America scandal, the UN oil for food scandal, the Plame affair or reporting on Iraq?

There are three attacks on blogs out today. See here, here and here.

No doubt there are probably some truth in some of these stories but I think MSM are trying to downplay the significance of blogs.

Clad in pajamas and armed only with Pringles, cocoa and a keyboard, they sway millions and make the mighty tremble as they tap away into the night.

The only problem: it isn't quite true.

Who made the claim that "they sway millions"? I've never seen or heard a blogger make that claim. This is MSM setting up a false claim so they can knock it down and appear right.

As for making the mighty tremble, John Kerry, Dan Rather, Eason Jordan, Linda Foley, Air America, the UN and "Albert Scardino, the Guardian's executive editor for news, who resigned as a direct result of Sassygate", to name a few, might disagree with the assesment that "it isn't quite true".

Back to the false premise.

Still, Forrester's findings suggest the ``blogosphere'' phenomenon has enjoyed some over-hyping.

Again, who's doing the "over-hyping"?

Now, to knock down the false premise.

Blog readership looks paltry against the 70 percent of Americans who watch ABC, 65 percent who read their local paper - or even the 18 percent who watch Home & Garden's HGTV.

Strip out the few dozen influential blogs and most of the estimated 5 million U.S. blogs probably enjoy very few readers.

That may be true but it's also true that blogs have forced MSM into reporting on stories they wanted to hide, correct gross errors, uncovered scandals MSM were then forced to report on and fire MSM members bloggers caught in the wrong. In short maybe it's true blogs "enjoy very few readers", but they seem to be reaching the right readers.

The readership figures for MSM may be correct as well, but their credibility and numbers have been in free fall for some time now - thanks to bloggers.

The blogsphere is still evolving and the complete picture isn't yet clear. What is clear is that blogs are here to stay and we are having great success in taking back our media. Who knows, if it hadn't been for bloggers exposing John Kerry's Vietnam lies and Dan Rather's attempt to smear George Bush using forged documents, John Kerry might be President now.

So, yes the mighty do tremble at blogs. MSM's attack on the blogsphere proves that.

UPDATE

Former University of Colorado president Betsy Hoffman was one who trembled. And as for how little blogs are read...

One of the first mentions of Churchill's essay [the one that compared 9/11 victims to "little Eichmans"] appeared on a blog called "little green footballs" after the professor was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Within 10 minutes, people were calling Gov. Bill Owens and asking him to tell Hoffman to fire Churchill, she said.

"Ten minutes - that's how fast things happen today," she said. "There was a period there when I was measuring my e-mail in boxes and pounds.

This is what MSM fear most, an informed and active public.

If there are so few blogs read by so few which do not sway millions and do not make people tremble, why the need for three MSM articles dismissing us? Me thinks they do protest too much.
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