I am not criticizing Rick either, a blog is a personal thing, we bring the latest stories, we interpret them by our own independent thinking and we offer our "opinions" on what we see happening.
So, I am not criticizing Rick at all here, lets get that straight.
With that said though, the title alone of his piece that has started a word war with Ace of Spades, whether intentional or not, was guaranteed to create a tidal wave of criticism from the right side of the blogosphere.
Let me show you why. The title is "BLOGS MISSING THE REAL STORY AS USUAL" and then the first two paragraphs are:
Getting caught up in a blog swarm on a particular topic can be hazardous. The very fact that so many are writing about the same thing can generate its own momentum, its own “narrative.” Each succeeding blogger who writes about the subject feels compelled to attach just a little more meaning, a little more importance to the story until the original subject has been blown so far out of proportion that it becomes lost amidst the cacophony of dramatic “revelations” and “gotchya” moments.
It is a phenomena of our media that continues to make us look like a bunch of idiots. Dissecting a topic until the short hairs are showing solves nothing, reveals nothing except our contempt for proportionality and the truth. Is it any wonder real reporters and editors are a little perplexed when they observe something like the outburst that accompanied Jill Carroll’s release from captivity or the huge to do over the Jeff Gannon episode?
I am going to stop here for a second because this is where I stopped reading the first time around and my internal response was and still is this:
Polls have been done on this issue, (Rasmussen to be specific) and I do not see much disagreement that the majority of our mainstream media is liberally slanted, therefore, a story defaming and insulting to our military where there is proof of at least one major inconsistency (The writer didn't even name the right country), that has been reported by the TNR with great fanfare, as well as being quoted by other large liberally based media sources, it takes a "blog swarm" of counter reporting to get the truth out to as many people as originally saw the first TNR publishing.
Now when blogs get the amount of traffic that major media outlets get, then perhaps it can be considered overkill to have such extensive coverage of an issue such as this. Until then, it is not only a good thing the blogs "swarm", but it is necessary.
Decloaking Beauchamp will not bring us closer to “victory” in Iraq – if such a thing existed outside of the fevered imaginations of an ever dwindling number of conservatives. It will not make up for Abu Ghraib – another story whose perceived importance far, far outweighed any relationship to the reality of what actually happened. It will not induce the American people to change their minds and embrace the war effort. Nor will it shut the left up which, while something devoutly to be desired, is alas an effort doomed to failure.
Again, I stop after this paragraph because I have not seen one person, other than Rick, even suggest that debunking Beauchamp's story would bring us closer to victory in Iraq, or change the minds of the left or change American's mind about the war effort, only progress on the ground will change American's minds as we have seen with the slow inching up of America's support for the war since they have been seeing progress reported, as of late.
I strongly disagree that the medium, blogging, suffers from the so-called blog swarming of any particular story.
It might not be a pretty reality, but it doesn't change the fact that it is a reality, that in order to be heard above a screaming, screeching person, you must also raise your own volume.
Now, for the Ace of Spades blogs response to Rick Moran's piece, I can fully understand it.
I have not been in the military for reasons too long for this particular discussion, but up on top of my own blog you will see a donate button to help rebuild a destroyed war memorial, I actively write, fax and call the Senate and Congress on behalf of our troops and in support of our troops and their mission, I have done interviews with soldiers set up by Centcom, I have published emails from soldiers asking me and other blogs to continue to, and I quote, "keep congress of our backs so we can complete our mission", I actively participate and try to be whatever help I can be to our military from where I sit, and my mother, father, uncle and brother have all been in the military, so I FULLY and completely understand the response and the anger Ace of Spades and many many other milibloggers feel to the TNR story when there are such obvious discrepancies and outright falsehoods presented by a publication with such a large audience like TNR.
People seem to forget that our military was defamed and lied about before, during the Vietnam era, when we didn't have personal blogs to counter those accusations and help fight the media battle here at home, which is part of this war on terror, to be sure.
So when the milibloggers and supporters of the military get up in arms, so to speak, when stories such as Beauchamp's come out, and they work their asses off to either prove the story true or prove it false, then they find out it was false, they have every right to their anger and some would even say, their obligation to make sure that as many people as possible get the truth.
As one Vietnam veteran said to me once, "we will not let them do to our brothers and sisters in arms, what they did to us."
Whether we agree with Rick Moran or not, whether he meant to offend or just offer his opinion, he is entitled to that opinion because it is his personal blog.
On the other hand, so are all the right wing bloggers that "swarmed" on this story, especially once falsehoods were discovered AND admitted by TNR. They too are entitled to write about whatever they so choose as often as they choose to.
One last note: Right Wing Nut House has been part of that "swarm" since the beginning, first calling for an independent inquiry, then Foer Under Fire, then embelishing the truth is the same as lying, then right and left missing the point, then the one from today which I linked to above as well as his response to Ace and others criticisms.
I am not criticizing him for being on top of this story, I personally believe the "blog swarm" is the best thing that could have happened in this case. Without it, Beauchamp's lies might never have been brought to light.
Just the take here of a relatively small blogger in a field of many that are bigger, better and more popular than my less than a year old blog, but one that is happy to have this venue to speak my mind and have my voice heard by those that do read me.
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