See that little box up top? Type anything you want in there, and it'll search this blog or the blogosphere at large. So, curious about what was being said about my wife's boss, I typed his name in there.
Why. Why, God, why.
Suddenly, I'm wading into the murky depths of the political blogosphere.
The signs told me not to do this. Why, God, why?
See, I don't know how to describe my politics. They're centrist, as best I can tell, leaning on libertarian. A shade of red here, a shade of blue there - perhaps that makes me purple. Or just a donkaphant.
There are a few things that really do gripe my ass, though. Censorship - I'm in the media, after all. Incorrectly identifying a counter-trey. Chris Berman. Red Sox-Yankees. Recently, however, there's a fast-climber up the charts: partisanship.
I do not suffer Joe Biden or Chuck Schumer lobbing grenades across the aisle, nor do I appreciate when Ted Stevens goes to Washington (state) to whine about a Senator from that state voting against one of his bills. I grow increasingly frustrated with the bickering that happens on the Hill, and exponentially frustrated when it spills over the general populus. And, so it seems, there's no middle ground on the political blogosphere.
And if partisanship is hobby No. 1 of the blogosphere at large, then media-bashing is hobby No. 1A.
At least that's what the sign said. Of course, I strolled right past it.
Why, God, why?
There were the typical lefty posts of this and that, some bordering on vicious and some just flat out inane (a student and political dork from Charlottesville lauded Jack Carter for his message of fiscal conservatism; my wife's boss is the single biggest fiscal conservative in the Senate). Then I saw the one that really blew my mind.
Some liberal folks accuse the AP of "repeated stories that contain outright errors and fabrications intended to mislead their readers into believing accusations that are unsubstantiated and untrue." I won't link, because frankly the place doesn't deserve any more traffic. But it's a place called AmericaBlog, which, strangely, seems to represent only half of America - the Democratic half. They were pissed about AP's wording in a story about Harry Reid accepting free tickets to a boxing match, and wrote with such urgency that it seemed this reporter's error (or, fabrication, if you prefer) would surely lead to the universe collapsing upon itself. There was talk of boycotts and getting every paper in America to subscribe to Reuters and whatnot.
Look, I could care less about the politics of the thing. It's neither black or white to me, and before I met my wife, Nevada politics had absolutely zero bearing on my life. So I surely don't have a dog in the fight.
But the media bashing? Good Lord. Stop already. I posted a rather snarky comment, No. 83.
How'd that boycott go? Seems like you got a lot accomplished.I don't know if I should feel good about that, or no. The words weren't exactly a slick knife, but more like blunt-force trauma. Either way, no matter how deftly written, the partisanship of the blogosphere consumed me. Whether I used a knife or a hammer, that great blue shark still swam up and got me.
Look, the former head of AP famously didn't disclose who he would vote for - not even to his own family.
If you want to chide the reporter for f--king up, that's one thing. But to dissect every word and declare him incompetent and biased? Good Lord. Get a life.
If this truly is what you do, I feel a tremendous sorrow for you personally.
And the last time I was at work, we were still getting AP copy. So I guess you didn't win, huh?
Don't worry, there's always a next time. You never know when those devious bastards at AP will misplace a "the" that will eventually lead to another GOP win and, of course, the downfall of mankind.
If you're really serious about killing AP, you'll have to go to every single small-town newspaper in America and convince them that they should abondon their readers and never run any copy from outside of their immediate area just so they can take a stand on a preceived slight. And that seems to be more than a two-bit blogsite can handle, IMO.
Why, God, why.
3 comments:
Wow. Tell us how you really feel. :)
Politics. Ugh. I refuse to talk with ANYONE. Parents, girlfriend, co-workers, etc. I have no need to waste precious minutes of my life discussing/arguing that.
At least you hit back.
Yeah, but I'm kind of like you - I wonder whether the time I spent hitting back was worth it.
I don't know who Mark is kidding - it was me, the conservative one, who was told not to say anything at a holiday meal. Seriously, I was not allowed to say a single word for fear it would spark a political conversation. I will say that it is rare to have "hunting and fishing liberal" in the same phrase!
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