The ABC's of Liberal Blogging (for Richard Cohen, Joe Klein...)

[ProSense]

Peter Daou
05.09.2006

The ABC's of Liberal Blogging (for Richard Cohen, Joe Klein, Tim Russert, et al.)

A is for Angry ~ B is for Bush ~ C is for Clueless.

Let me explain. In recent months, several prominent media and political figures have had run-ins with left-leaning bloggers (examples here, here, here, here, and here). Their reactions have been eerily similar. Greg Sargent describes it accurately: "In recent weeks, one member after another of the D.C. media establishment has gone out of his way to depict bloggers as hysterical, angry and destructive.

To hear them tell it, bloggers sitting at their computers are akin to squalling brats in high-chairs chucking baby food at their sober, serious elders -- i.e., major figures at the established news organizations."

This attempt to demonize and belittle the online community is old news, but lately it's taken on new urgency... and it's getting really tiresome. Yes, it's a predictable reaction to the rapid rise of a new political power center, but really, how clueless can people like Richard Cohen be? Here's what every blogger's favorite "liberal" columnist writes in today's WaPo: "The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.... The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations."

As I sat down to craft a thoughtful post about Cohen's latest outburst, I got a call from a conservative blogger with whom I'm appearing at a blog workshop. He'd just read the Cohen piece and much as he said he enjoyed watching liberal bloggers get criticized, he articulated a response to Cohen that was far less polite (and shorter) than the one I intended to post: "Tough sh*t! So after thirty years of writing this stuff in a bubble, you're finally getting feedback from people who are pissed off. Deal with it."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/the-abcs-of-liberal-blog_b_20678.html

[AX10]

1. K&R

[CTyankee]

2. From this 66 year old grandmother of 4

I say to Richard Cohen, "How dare you?" I don't really blog but I am on DU every day and Mr. Cohen can just kiss my a**. Blogs and DU are the best thing that could happen to America at this time.

I'm older and tougher than he is. He has sold out big time and needs to get the spanking he is getting. What a whiny brat he is! Just because he works for the Washington Post he thinks he is some kind of royalty. Well, screw that.

This whole NY/DC MSM press corps needs to be shaken to its foundation. I am sick of them!

[ProSense]

3. The lapdogs whine! n/t

[Senator]

4. What I posted over there: It's the Euphemizing!

It's the Euphemizing !! (... stupid)

And "bubble" is just another euphemism.

You see, the DC beltway operates, nearly literally, as a large sphincter muscle. Even the best of minds can be severely affected if any time at all is spent there among the DC/Euphemedia Analstocracy (or in their NYC neposticized annex).

In that environment factual reality is an enemy that must be ignored, euphemized, or denied as an act of faith. Doing all three at the same time is the ultimate act of self-preservation.

Hence the "liberal" use of the word "angry," which of course is just a euphemism for crazy; irrational. But if reality were allowed into the equation that would mean that someone is actually being irrational -- yes, it would be us or them who's nuts -- and that would be a very dangerous prospect indeed for a "socially conscious" (in Georgetown salons) pundit.

But there are more dangerous prospects.

Suppose someone actually said in public that "The American People were TERRORIZED into accepting War Crimes in our names -- with a Bomb Threat of "Mushroom Clouds ... in 45 minutes."

Crazy to believe or crazy to deny ???

The warmth and darkness of the "bubble" gets far more inviting, no?

--

[MH1]

5. K&R - Peter nails it again!