Sunday, August 20, 2006

This Post Completely Deleted By The Author

Well, completely deleted in the Orla Goering sense. I mean, I’ve moved a couple of commas around, which is practically the same. I’m guessing everyone’s read about DfH’s latest bust ? Oops – make that everyone in the blogosphere. The MSM doesn’t want to know. So remind me again: which side is it that has multiple layers of fact-checking and a code of professional ethics ?

Not to say that there isn’t a certain grim amusement seeing the Orlons’ defenders in the comments to the original post. The best excuse saw was the guy trying to claim that the undamaged parts of the town weren’t actually part of the town, no, they were part of the suburbs. Huh ? What happened to all that indiscriminate carpet bombing ? Suddenly, the bloodthirtsy ZioNazis are respecting local zoning laws ?

Not to beat a dead horse to death, but this is where all the MSM’s pious rhetoric comes home to roost (next to the mangled metaphors). Here we have a BBC reporter caught lying on camera. Hey, it’s not the first time questions have been raised about either the Orlon or the MSM in general. Remember the MSM’s three-line whip when questions were raised about Qana ? Now it turns out that ‘Green Helmet’ admits to staging photographs – but only in a good way though. Then there’s the Evil Jew Swing – and all this is just in the last few days.

The MSM have all the money and the technology, but bloggers keep popping up and catching them in the act. The more effort they put into defending themselves on a specific point, the more other incidents come to light. Who’s in a ‘quagmire’ now, losers ?

The MSM likes to preach about its vital importance to democracy, but what we’ve seen in Lebanon is an industry in a complete moral meltdown. You find yourself wondering just what they’ll get caught doing next. This isn’t about rogue individuals. The whole industry has followed a code of virtual omerta on the subject of misconduct, while some have actively attacked those who’ve raised questions.

The MSM can’t have their cake and eat it. They can’t disparage the ‘unregulated’ blogopsphere while closing ranks around crooks in their own industry. Pretty much the defining feature of a profession is that it regulates the conduct of it’s members. If the MSM is going to claim special privileges for its members while resolutely refusing to demand any ethical standards from them, then journalism ceases to be a profession and becomes a cartel. Or, to put it another way, just how much worse could bloggers be ?

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