Bill O'Reilly vs DailyKos - i.e. - Mass Media vs the Blogosphere.

[whiskeytown]

Bill's ratings have gone down, and no one cares about George Soros, so he's picked his next target. Bill has been launching some pretty broad piles of manure at DailyKos.

Background - DailyKos is a progressive community of bloggers. It is hardcore progressive, and is critical of moderate democrats. It is also an open forum where commments can be posted, just like 2+2, Huffington, Slashdot, Fark, etc, etc.

When you encounter a community of several thousands like this, there is always a nimrod praying that Rove gets Cancer, Hillary gets cancer, S.F falls into the sea for it's ungodly behavior, DC burns down, etc - you know the rhetoric of anonymous posters on these kind of sites - there's always nutjobs, but the majority of DailyKos's discussion has been pretty forward.

More importantly, it has revived the idea of community discussion. As Al Gore recently pointed out in "The Assault on Reason" - Democracy requires communication that goes both ways, and modern TV news is a one way dose of BS thru a fire hydrant that barely scratches the surface.

Bill O' has therefore been attacking DailyKos, calling it hate filled based upon a few posters, when in reality, I think he sees it as a threat based upon it's politics and it's method. Chris Dodd called him to the mat on this, and I think for Bill to call their posting hate filled speech is pot calling kettle coal black in the bowels of the earth. Hypocrisy personified. But more so, it is dishonest in that it refuses to acknowledge the fact his biggest beef isn't with how things are said, but rather the politics/influence it has on the larger discussion within society. People communicating and working out solutions amongst each other and selecting viable Democratic candidates is a threat to the system Bill represents - but one must assume his attacks wouldn't be nearly so vocal had it been a Republican equivlent (of which I can think of none at this time)

And poing of fact, most of the Democratic Candidates showed up at the yearlyKos convention for breakout sessions and discussion. Strategy and "Day after the election" talk is rampant, as well as some great analysis from your average joe on the street (as well as some not so great - the diaries/comments usually serve as the best barometer of how valuable one particular thread of discussion is, just like here) - and

And sites like Daily Kos are vital for a return to the principles of reason and discourse that are vital for a Democracy - sustained discourse, debate, and reason on issues is what makes Democracy function - and in the years since TV started, we have drifted as far from this as TV now dictates how the masses are fed their pabulm.

Bill sees DailyKos as a threat, I see it as a vital effort to sustain democracy.

RB

[leehrat]

Yeah bill's a massive douchebag, i don't really follow dailykos too much though

[Ron Burgundy]

So I read this longass post just to find out that you like to read DailyKos?

[MidGe]

[ QUOTE ]
Bill sees DailyKos as a threat, I see it as a vital effort to sustain democracy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I tend to agree with you whiskytown. But I am interested in how you determine credibility? That question applies to both traditional media and to blogs. Do you use a different standard for both?

[AzDesertRat]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah bill's a massive douchebag, i don't really follow dailykos too much though

[/ QUOTE ]

+1

[anatta]

I enjoy Kos and have been following this outrage. O'Reilly is flat out lying to his audience. I agree its out of fear, these blogs are the voice of the left, and it scares the hell out of these guys.

[DVaut1]

[ QUOTE ]
I enjoy Kos and have been following this outrage. O'Reilly is flat out lying to his audience. I agree its out of fear, these blogs are the voice of the left, and it scares the hell out of these guys.

[/ QUOTE ]

I doubt it's really out of fear.

Part of it may be that O'Reilly is a popular and easy target for the left, so he may be taking the criticisms lobbed at him personally and have some kind of score he thinks he needs to settle.

Far more likely, though, is that O'Reilly has calculated his audience wants to hear about leftist boogeymen, so he's giving them what they want. I think Fox News demographics trend older and lower income than other cable news stations, so there's probably some part of his audience that aren't quite sure what the intraweb is, but are sure it's full of weird and scary people trying to have sex with their pubescent grandchildren, steal their identity, and post mean things about President Bush in blog comments.

I try to explain to old people with limited internet experience that sexual predators, Nigerians trying to get access to your bank account through nefarious means, and flame wars only constitute 80% of what the internet has to offer. There's another 20% that's probably safe for old people's sensitivities. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
As Al Gore recently pointed out in "The Assault on Reason" - Democracy requires communication that goes both ways, and modern TV news is a one way dose of BS thru a fire hydrant that barely scratches the surface.

[/ QUOTE ]


oh the irony

[JackWhite]

I agree O'reilly's rants against DailyKos are generally unfair. To take something posted on a message board and ascribe that to Kos and everyone else on the site is bogus.

Since the topic of the OP deals with the media, let me throw in my 2 cents on a few interesting stories about the "objective" news media. When Karl Rove announced his resignation a few days ago, the news room at the Seattle Times broke out in cheers. This brought an e-mail of condemnation from the Executive Editor, Dave Boardman.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker...blue-driven-act

An interesting quote from Boardman's e-mail:

“If we wore our politics on our sleeves in here, I have no doubt that in this and in most other mainstream newsrooms in America, the majority of those sleeves would be of the same color: blue. Survey after survey over the years have demonstrated that most of the people who go into this business tend to vote Democratic, at least in national elections. That is not particularly surprising, given how people make career decisions and that social service and activism is a primary driver for many journalists.”

Generally, when somebody admits the obvious, it is not worth noting. But since so many deny what Boardman admits, I thought it was worth posting.

In a related story, the Seattle Times cheers against Rove prompted MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to relay a story about his first day at MSNBC. He was in the newsroom during Bush's State of the Union Speech. Scarborough said the room mocked and jeered everything Bush said.

http://media.newsbusters.org/stories/msn...shs-state-union

[in48092]

as long as we're talking about political blogs, this is a good one.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/