http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/j/jensen/2005/jensen030205.htm

March 2, 2005
by Pete Jensen

We are the priests of the temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls
We are the priests of the temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life are held within our walls

Rush - "2112"

One could wonder if Ted Rall had been the inspiration for the opus of Lee,
Peart, and Lifeson as you read the latest drivel that issued forth from the
flatulence of the keyboard that passes for his latest column bemoaning the
internet media in general, and bloggers in particular. Why, oh, why would
anyone go to the internet for their news and commentary when there are
responsible, REAL journalists like Ted Rall eager to spoon feed it to the
teeming masses? Why indeed. I can hear his sphincter pucker from miles away.

Stock up on the K-Y, Teddy-boy. This is the high point, from here on it's
all downhill for you and your ilk. And it's your utter cluelessness that
will be your undoing. Before I begin, though, I'd like to correct him on his
choice of title, "But Who Watches the Watchdogs?" Ted, Ted, Ted, if you're
going to quote Juvenal's "Satires," it's "Sed Quis Custodiet Ipsos
 Custodes?" or "Who is to guard the guards themselves?" Of
course, being a
good liberal, I imagine you're a graduate of Publik Skule, so we'll overlook
that for now. Can't really expect you to grab all the nuances of a classical
education, can we?
I could tell it was going to be one of his usual snivels with his opening
shot of "A blog is like a column without the responsibility."

Well, Teddy, me bucko, in a word, "No." Blogging, sirrah, is instead more
like unto a column with the responsibility returned to it. I'll explain it
for him. He may want to keep his dictionary handy, though, I don't have the
patience to break it down into single syllable words for him.

Liberals (And here I include Feminuts, Tree-huggers, and the usual
collection of moonbats and whiners that seem to flock to that philosophy)
have had it really easy for a long time. They've served as high priests and
gatekeepers to the hallowed halls of academia and public opinion, wielding
editorial power and running the Inquisitions of Political Correctness. Sure,
they kept a couple of token Conservatives around, and delighted in trotting
out the looneys of Libertarianism to keep it discredited, but by and large
no opinion passed without passing them first. Stray too far from the party
line, and lose your position - and if that failed, they could sit by smugly,
allow Gloria Allred or someone like her to shout down and interrupt a
conservative guest, and squelch their microphone (Or give the old "Out of
time, ten seconds .. Thanks for being here!" line) when they began getting
traction.

Sadly for them, all good things come to an end. First there was Rush
Limbaugh, who got on the air, and said things that people thought he would
be banned for, until the owners of radio stations noticed his ratings, and
the demand for him. When he was dropped from some stations, other stations
picked him up, and increased their ratings. Then came FOX News, who had the
radical idea of letting conservatives complete a thought while on the air.
(And for which they are labeled dangerously unbalanced by the wild-eyed
crazies on the left.) Then came the Internet, heralded by BBS networks
(Remember FidoNet?), where one could become their own editor and news
bureau. Have an opinion? Set up your virtual soapbox and voice it. If it's
worth hearing, people will listen.

As Ted says, "my initial reaction to the blog explosion.was
delight." Until,
of course, liberals like him discovered that people were about sick of their
dreck, which was force-fed to them in a steady stream. Liberal BBSers,
Left-wing Internet pundits - all old hat. Same old, same old. Heard it, been
there, done that. Instead of picking up a newspaper and grousing about some
liberal buffoon puking the same pablum all over the pages, people who had
heard so few voices resembling their own for years and years were now
sitting down at their computer going, "Yeah .. Uh-huh . Yeah! What he
said!"

Nobody wanted to listen to yet more liberal claptrap. So they tuned out the
liberals, and flocked to sites who shared their values and POV. And the old
guard Liberal Media Elite just can't stand it, they stand around grumping
like a bunch of elderly Klansman after they "let the negroes into the
country club."

Teddy's real problem with the accountability of bloggers is that the
bloggers have real accountability. If one writes nonsense, if one just can't
write, nobody will read them, but if one reads them, they can't be silenced.
They can't be fired by some liberal editor, or have their columns quashed by
a liberal editorial board, or protested off the staff, or just plain
blacklisted by the liberal elite. This setup, by the by, is what also gave
those like Ted their own lack of accountability, as criticism of leftist
rubbish could be swept under the rug, or relegated to the back pages and
small print. It's a loss of a lack of accountability for him that Comrade
Rall so bitterly laments.

Now, much to their chagrin, they see the party winding down. When the
N.O.W., the ACLU, PETA, and other left-wing-nuts put out their releases,
there's able to be a rapid response. When candidates like John Kerry make
idiotic statements, there's no cutting the segment, or dropping such quotes
from the story. The peccadillos of liberal pols, and excesses of political
correctness can no longer be dismissed as "not newsworthy." Right-leaning
politicians can no longer be quoted out of context without a correction
being on the net in minutes, and whenever the attempt is made to repeat a
lie until it becomes believed as the truth, the truth can be called up in
minutes, if not seconds.

All of these, and more, bring realaccountability to the Biased Main-Stream
Liberal Media, an accountability that chafes these formerly smug demagogues.
People demand the other side of the story be told, that opposing viewpoints
be aired and allowed to speak, that they be allowed to decide for themselves
what is newsworthy. When the spin and bullshit detectors go off, the
internet can be consulted. No more can the left-wing editors and reporters
pick and choose among gap-toothed ignoramuses for their pseudo-balance and
view from the "other side" because the more articulate and cogent
apologists
for conservatism are at everyone's fingertips.

This is what has Ted's BVD's in a twist. This is what makes Katie Couric
clench up her butt-cheeks (Yeah, I could have done without the image too,
but since your Uncle Gonzo has it, everyone else gets to share the misery.
Suffer.), and this is what gets Al Franken frothing at the mouth and shoving
bloggers at political conventions. They no longer have their protected
monopoly on what you hear, and how you hear it. They have to compete for
your ear, and socialists just hate that.

They hate and despise the fact that their icons and sacred cows are now open
for ridicule, no more can St. Theodore of Chappaquiddick be held up as
anything but a grotesque and drunken buffoon, or Saint John of the Boo-Boos
be portrayed as some war hero who was wounded in hand-to-hand combat with
the enemy. And when they preach from on high with pious and pompous
arrogance, they no longer speak with impunity, fearing no contradiction.
Red-state people can no longer be cowed into compliance and told that they
are out of step; they can see for themselves that their views are in fact
majority views, and have their own set of intelligent arguments that they
can draw from, and use to inform their political conscience.

It's not that the new sheriff in town, to use Ted's extended metaphor, is a
drunken lout, but that the old sheriff is a decrepit, corrupt, and indolent
dinosaur who is having to contend with a host of modern Magnum P.I.s
whizzing about in their Ferraris and ferreting out the truth that the old
fat bastard got away with burying for far, far too long. It's not a new
McCarthyism, it's the undoing of the intellectual rot and old McCarthyism
that tired and increasingly irrelevant leftists like Mr. Rall have been
foisting off on the American people and claiming as "Journalism."

One thing that Ted Rall need not worry about from me, though. I won't feed
his paranoid delusions about being the target for death threats or hate
mail. The Black Helicopters aren't after you, Ted. Take off the tin-foil
hat. It'll be alright.

See, I actually like clowns.

Pete Jensen


--
Men are everywhere that matters!





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