Putting Easongate Into Perspective

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/orl-parker,1,6924287.columnist?ctrack=1&cset=true Parker’s Feb 16 editorial, Orlando Sentinel

For all of the Chicken Littles out there lamenting the rise in blogger “power,” (including the likes of Bob Beckel, David Gergen, and Kathleen Parker), rest easy, the demise in the MSM lies in the MSM’s hands, not in the hands of the blogoshpere. What each of these boo-hooers fail to grasp is that the bloggers who covered this story did so responsibly, and for the most part asked for one of two things…Eason Jordan to explain himself, which he did not do, or for the Davos tape to be released, which also was not done. In the absence of either “responsible” action, and a complete lack of MSM interest to pursue, the search for the “truth,” was left to interested parties in the blogosphere. End of story.

The fact the Eason Jordan was canned because he could not prove his slanderous claims causes me to pause for nary a second. I suspect that his canning has little to do with the blogoshpere effort and more to do with his unsupportable and outlandish comments made about his home country’s military. The intensity of the blogosphere attacks would have little impact if the statements were: 1. Proved to have never been made. 2. Were made, but found to be in a defendable context. 3. Were made and investigated to be true. None of which occurred. They were made and covered up…with the help of an olfactory-less bloodhound known as the MSM. In the end, he was fired, because he, CNN, or the rest of the MSM could not cover up what he said. They could only attempt to mitigate what could not be mitigated. All were found lacking and Jordan gets canned. Fair exchange in my mind for the slander he brought upon the men and women dying to give him the right to say those very words.

I am done worrying about Jordan and his job…if he is good at what he does, and he can keep his mouth in line, like most of us have to at work, he should get a new job…good luck.

Now for all the blogoshpere paranoiacs… chill out. Kathleen Parker’s Feb 16th editorial in the Orlando Sentinel is over the top. Her conclusion is that the blogoshpere may, in the end, have the effect of chilling free speech. Are you kidding me? It only chills merit-less allegations. It chills fabricated stories and evidence. It chills bias and partisan coverage. It does not however chill the truth.

I think the paradigm shift that is being missed here by the MSM and fringe bloggers like Parker, is that we don’t want the “story,” as written by some left-leaning, biased MSM reporter. We simply want the truth, and we are not going to wait six months for some watered down version to come from us via the MSM, with a slant that tells us that rain is actually sunshine.

We have the power, and it is powerful, to get to the truth in rapid order. The power in the blogoshpere lies in the fact the “truth” will surface, not with the bloggers. Beckel, Gergen, Parker, and the rest will do well to recognize this, and quit lamenting the firing of a journalist who felt that he could hide from the truth.