Flogging Blogging, Part I

A typical trick of the MSM exposed by Atrios.

Eschaton: "The Straw Blogger

There are so many ways to write articles casting bloggers in a poor light. First, invent arbitrary ethical or journalistic standards which apply to no one else in the universe, and then show how bloggers violate them. Second, assume beliefs and motives of bloggers, lumping them all together, and then invent charges of hypocrisy. Third, invent arbitrary benchmarks for accomplishments which if achieved prove bloggers have superpowers, but if not achieved prove they are teh suck. Fourth, elevate an invented concept of 'civility' as an all-important value. Fifth, the practice of 'nutpicking,' attributing the comments in unmoderated comments sections to the blogger him/herself. . ."

A developing theme, besides the "civility issue" is that bloggers have somehow sold out, which would be a neat trick considering that 99.9% of all bloggers don't get paid anything from anybody. But even at its "best" that comment is specious-- compare the, say, thousand bucks a mythical blogger got to wrote a fluff post on some politician or corporation, then compare that to the literally millions dumped on the MSM looking for favorable news coverage. Same ballpark? Nope. Not even the same universe.