{"id":101,"date":"2006-04-15T10:59:56","date_gmt":"2006-04-15T15:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/04\/15\/groveling-vs-raging\/"},"modified":"2006-04-15T17:47:05","modified_gmt":"2006-04-15T22:47:05","slug":"groveling-vs-raging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2006\/04\/15\/groveling-vs-raging\/","title":{"rendered":"Groveling vs. Raging"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post has a front-page piece<\/strong><\/a> today sneering at angry bloggers.\u00a0 Here’s the lead:<\/p>\n

In the angry life of Maryscott O’Connor, the rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. The sun has yet to rise and her family is asleep, but no matter; as soon as the realization kicks in, O’Connor, 37, is out of bed and heading toward her computer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Out there, awaiting her building fury: the Angry Left, where O’Connor’s reputation is as one of the angriest of all. “One long, sustained scream” is how she describes the writing she does for various Web logs, as she wonders what she should scream about this day.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/em><\/p>\n

I am no fan of raw rage: anger is a far more reliable indicator of elevated blood pressure than of any external fact.\u00a0And the thought of getting up each morning and whipping oneself into a frenzy makes about as much sense as getting up each morning and going to a government desk job.<\/p>\n

But what is the alternative perspective of the Establishment Washington media?<\/p>\n

Here’s a riff from the “Lying and Legitimacy” chapter of Attention Deficit Democracy:<\/p>\n

Deference to the government is now the trademark of the American media\u2014at least at times when the truth could have the greatest impact. The media was grossly negligent in failing to question or examine Bush\u2019s claims on the road to war. When journalists dug up the truth, editors sometimes ignored or buried their reports. Washington Post <\/em>Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks complained that, in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, “There was an attitude among editors: \u2018Look, we\u2019re going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?\u2019” New York Times<\/em> White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller explained the press\u2019s conduct at a Bush press conference just before he invaded Iraq: “I think we were very deferential because… nobody wanted to get into an argument with the president at this very serious time.”<\/font><\/p>\n

After the war started\u2014and after Bush\u2019s claims turned out to be false\u2014 it was often treated as a one-day story, buried in the back of the front section or on the editorial page. Afterward, most papers quickly returned to printing the president\u2019s proclamations as gospel. Alterman, author of When Presidents Lie<\/em>, observed, “Virtually every major news media outlet devoted more attention to the lies and dissimulations of one New York Times reporter, Jayson Blair, than to those of the president and vice president of the United States regarding Iraq. Given that these two deceptions took place virtually simultaneously, they demonstrate that while some forms of deliberate deception remain intolerable in public life, those of the U.S. commander in chief are not among them.”<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

The fact that bloggers have helped expose a number of Washington Post debacles might bias the paper\u00a0 on this subject.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Washington City Paper has an excellent piece<\/a><\/strong> this week on the contortions that the Washington Post<\/em> editorial page has gone through to continue supporting Bush’s war on Iraq.\u00a0 As late as June 2005 – the Post was claiming that it was “not spurious” to link Saddam Hussein and the 9\/11 attacks.\u00a0\u00a0 The people who wrote this editorial would\u00a0do a public service if they\u00a0stay home and kick the dog or whatever instead of going to the office and cranking out such servile tripe.\u00a0<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post has a front-page piece today sneering at angry bloggers.\u00a0 Here’s the lead: In the angry life of Maryscott O’Connor, the rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. 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