September 28, 2005

9/28: It's A Blog Blog Blog Blog World

Note: Today's Hotline went to press before House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay was indicted; it's a bit too soon to collect blogger reax, but we'll have reax aplenty tomorrow.

Today's edition covers stories far and wide. Ex-FEMA dir. Michael Brown's 9/27 cong. testimony was the hottest story to interest both left and right bloggers; the 1st chapter of ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes' book, available on Amazon, draws both serious criticism and mockery from conservatives; a monthly GOP straw poll once again confirms ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sec/State Condoleezza Rice are the favorites; the Abu Ghraib-like "gore for porn" story gains a bit more traction; the New York Times loses to Geraldo Rivera and seems to be losing its battle with online readers; SCOTUS speculation runs rampant; plus, liberal bloggers watch disturbing new developments in the Jack Abramoff scandal; and eagerly await news on whether House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay will be indicted on conspiracy counts [Update: They are no longer waiting]. But first, we consider the New Orleans Times-Picayune's new online publishing format and its implications for other papers:

ONLINE JOURNALISM: The Future Of Content Management?

When Katrina struck and the Times-Picayune temporarily ceased to publish as a printed newspaper, much of the website was reinvented as a series of blogs. 1 month later, the T-P's NOLA.com is still publishing as a weblog. Here is the 9/28 news section. Here even is the sports section. In fact, the print edition stories linked on the front page all go to a single page where stories are listed one after the other and each story has its own permalink. One immediate benefit is that one can search the entire text of a day's edition on one page using Ctrl-F.

Newhouse/Advance, which owns the Times-Picayune, has long had one of the less-attractive and unnavigable templates for its newspapers, and the T-P page still has its faults. On the other hand, it's also been one of the first chains to experiment with weblogs, such as their "Sopranos"-oriented Bada Bing Blog. As for the news pages of their other papers, it's business as usual at those websites, such as Oregonlive.com, AL.com and NJ.com. But how long before they switch over entirely? And how long before others follow suit? Indeed, the blogging format -- the chronologically-arranged, clearly-delineated series of items on a single page -- offers inherent advantages for both the reader and the website managers.

KATRINA RESPONSE: No One Wins The Blame Game -- You Only Lose

On 9/26, ex-FEMA dir./current FEMA adviser Brown appeared before a House Select cmte investigating the Katrina response:

• From the left -- Supreme Irony of Life summarizes the MSNBC article on the story, and concludes that Brown's take is: "Everyone is at fault for FEMA's performance, except for the person directing FEMA." Demagogue scoffs at Brown's claim, as reported by the New York Times, that FEMA was mistakenly believed a "rapid-response" agency: "I can't imagine where the media and the American people would have gotten the impression that FEMA played a rapid-response role. Unless, umm... maybe it was from this FEMA update, released last September." The FEMA document uses the phrase "rapid response" to describe its efforts, plus a few similar-meaning phrases. Alas, A Blog doesn't trust the panel to get it right: "As for this committee or commission investigation (whatever they're going to call it) into 'what went wrong,' will we truly get any honest answers from them?"


• From the right -- The Political Teen doesn't think the panel should have been convened yet in the first place: "It hasn't even been a month since Katrina hit, residents haven't returned to their neighborhoods and we're holding hearings to decide where the blame goes? It wasn't until 14 months after the 9/11 attacks that a commission was held to find out where the blame resides." But conservative PoliBlog isn't impressed with Brown's "defiant" stance: "Even if this is all wholly accurate, I don't think that approach it going to be effective or productive. Indeed, I have little doubt that a substantial amount of the blame belongs at the local level, but to start out by shifting all blame is not the way to go -- nor do I think it is an accurate presentation." GOP Bloggers wonders why it's "taboo" to mention that Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D-LA) "completely bungled" the hurricane response, whereas GOPers FL Gov. Jeb Bush and TX Gov. Rick Perry managed just fine with their hurricanes.


• A few liberal bloggers go after a favorite target -- Conservative Power Line's John Hinderaker titles a post "Brownie Kicks Butt," writing: "It's hard to say what a marginally-informed citizen would make of the Katrina hearing, but my own impression was that the only person in the room who had any idea what he was talking about was Michael Brown." The Mahablog objects: "Only a ten-cup-a-day Kool Aider could believe this." Oliver Willis announces that "The Stupidity of John Hinderaker" will become a regular feature at his site.

MEMOGATE: Book Of The Month

The 1st chapter of ex-CBS producer Mapes is available on Amazon, in advance of its 11/8 release date."Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power"; not surprisingly, conservative blogs are all over it. In one passage, Mapes writes: "Within a few minutes, I was online visiting Web sites I had never heard of before: Free Republic, Little Green Footballs, Power Line. They were hard-core, politically angry, hyperconservative sites loaded with vitriol about Dan Rather and CBS. Our work was being compared to that of Jayson Blair..." Power Line's John Hinderaker: "Her writing reveals that she has no idea what she is talking about; repeatedly, she says that critics of her television program talked about 'peripheral spacing' in the alleged National Guard documents. This is astonishing; it's hard to say what is more amazing: that after a year, Mapes still doesn't know that 'proportional spacing' is what we and many other bloggers discussed, or that she and her editors 1) know nothing about typography, and 2) on top of that, are too lazy to read our posts." Mapes also writes of reading the blogs: "I had a real physical reaction as I read the angry online accounts. It was something between a panic attack, a heart attack, and a nervous breakdown. My palms were sweaty; I gulped and tried to breathe." The Great Satan replies: "Yeah Mary, those are symptoms usually associated with embarrassment, and fear." Bloggledygook observes that Mapes "writes that she and her team had 'made news' in the story she produced" for "60 Minutes II," but what she "fails to realize even now is that her job is not to make news, but to report it."

Co-Power Liner Scott Johnson: "We keep waiting for Karl Rove's minions in the media world to give us a call and offer us a book contract on the inside story ... We figure he owes us after we so dutifully followed his orders and played our role in exposing the fraudulent 60 Minutes II story with which CBS sought to tip the campaign last fall." Actually, at Rathergate, Mark Kilmer notes that site founder Kevin Craver is writing a book on the subject, which "will contain a chapter taking down the Mapes novel."

Media Lies: "It's ridiculous to keep rehashing this story, but so long as the dinosaurs keep rising from the dead, we have to stab them in the heart one more time."

GOP STRAW POLL: Rudy, Rudy, Rudy, Rice, Rudy, Rudy, Rudy

36 hours after Patrick Ruffini's latest straw poll went up, 10K+ participants have voted; click here for results.

Just like in previous polls (see 8/24 Blogometer), ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads by a wide margin at 34.0%. Trailing: Sen. George Allen (R-VA) at 19.0%; MA Gov. Mitt Romney at 10.1%; Undecided at 7.6%; and CO Rep. Tom Tancredo at 6.6%. Further down, MS Gov. Haley Barbour inches ahead of AZ Sen. John McCain. The Aug. poll included ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich, although this time he gets a "bye." Leaders last time were Giuliani, Allen, Gingrich, Romney and McCain.

On the fantasy ballot, where readers can keep their original pick or go with a new one, the top 5 vote-getters are: Sec/State Condoleezza Rice at 34.4%; Giuliani at 12.5%; FL Gov. Jeb Bush at 10.2%; VP Cheney at 8.3%; and ex-Sen. Fred Thompson at 7.9%.

As before, the list is sortable according to a handful of variables, including referring blog. Top referrers are Michelle Malkin, Ruffini's own site, Hugh Hewitt, RedState, PoliPundit and InstaPundit who just linked at 8 a.m. RedState is the only blog whose readership favored Allen, and is only one of two blogs where McCain finished in the top 5 (at #3).

Also notable with this poll is the use of Technorati-style "tags"; readers can enter descriptors of themselves, and results are sortable in this manner. In the cases we checked, Giuliani's strong support holds true for most categories, although Allen leads by about 2 points with "pro-life" voters and edges Giuliani for those self-described as "Christian."

Ruffini explains his introduction of tags: "Tired of meaningless poll questions that don't ask about things you really care about? Want to get across what really drives you, and find what others exactly like you think? Then tagging is perfect. If you're a pro-life libertarian concerned about immigration and taxes, just type in: pro-life, libertarian, immigration, taxes. Then see how other self-identified libertarians and pro-lifers voted. (Though it's an unscientific poll, could tagging revolutionize how traditional polling is done? Could be.)"

WHITE HOUSE '08: Joe Montana

Here's a WH'08 draft blog that is a few months old, but which we just found: Schweitzer for President. It is accompanied by a bare bones TLD site of the same name (i.e. top-level-domain, meaning that phrase followed by ".com"), and a draft petition. The latest post trumps his 66% approval rating.

In a column for Town Hall, PoliPundit contributing blogger Lorie Byrd argues that in the post-Katrina climate, Giuliani's leadership is all the more attractive, plus, "one thing that Giuliani may be able to do, that some other Republicans might not, is unite the country."

Conservative Scared Monkeys, noting an AP story on China's crackdown on political websites, wonders if Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) still stands by a statement she made during the Lewinsky scandal: "We are all going to have to rethink how we deal with this, because there are all these competing values ... Without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function, what does it mean to have the right to defend your reputation?" Scared Monkeys: "Does some one maybe think that Hillary Clinton may need to inform us just how she does think about today's 'freedom of speech' on the internet?"

PENTAGON: Is This A Case Where The Pictures Actually Hurt This From Getting More Attention -- Because The Pictures Are Actually Too Horrible?

Liberal AMERICAblog notes that the New York Times has picked up on the "gore for porn" scandal, i.e. the pornographic message board to which some U.S. soldiers have apparently posted images of themselves posing with dead bodies in Iraq and Afghanistan (see 9/26 Blogometer). AMERICAblog's John Aravosis noted earlier: "Think about how crass the Pentagon is. DOD is contacted about this scandal earlier today, tell the press they're investigating, because of course they only JUST heard of this horrible scandal recently (that's why they didn't act sooner, of course), and then a few hours later says sorry, we can't prosecute but we'll be sure to consider disciplinary action. Huh?" The Times doesn't mention AMERICAblog as having pushed the story, although the Editor & Publisher story linked in the above paragraph does.

In the voice of Gen. George S. Patton -- as portrayed by George C. Scott -- Trey Jackson berates critics of the Iraq war, particularly Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) for calling the Abu Ghraib abuse "torture" and "atrocities" -- compared with actual atrocities such as the beheading of Nick Berg and the 9/11 attacks.

SCOTUS: Yeah, And It Could Also Be Yo Mama

RedState's court-focused Confirm Them and NRO's Bench Memos the places to go for purportedly genuine SCOTUS rumors (as opposed to blogger favorites like Janice Rogers Brown). There are almost too many to keep track of, but even though we're surely missing some, let's try:

• AG Alberto Gonzales
• WH counsel Harriet Miers
• 4th Circuit Karen Williams
• Ex-SG atty Miguel Estrada
• 5th Circuit Judge Priscilla Owen
• FL Judge Raoul Cantero
• 7th Circuit Judge Diane Sykes
• 6th Circuit Judge Alice Batchelder

It seems almost pointless to detail the speculation, although Williams' name has been arguably the most-mentioned in the past 24 hours. NRO's Jonathan Adler asks if Williams is "a serious contender for the Supreme Court? Or is she destined to be a whisker away like Judge Edith Brown Clement? We should know before the end of the week."

NEW YORK TIMES: Other Possible Analogies Include The Pentagon Papers, Standard Oil, Whack-A-Mole ...

As the Blogometer reported yesterday, bloggers are posting TimesSelect material to the web, and readers are using Technorati to locate them. Noting the same trend, Kausfiles nicknamed the blog search engine "Dowdster" (as in Napster). Technorati is still being used this way this a.m., and unlike on 9/27, now they're searching for the conservative columnists as well. Among the top 10 NYT-related searches this am: "Find The Brownie" (Krugman's latest); "Paul Krugman"; "John Tierney"; "Maureen Dowd"; "Human Beings 2.0" (Tierney's latest); and "David Brooks." Meanwhile, John Tabin's Never Pay Retail page notes the existence bootlegs of all recent columns save for the latest. On a related note, Bob Herbert and David Brooks are still available online at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; click here for the Brooks' 9/27 column.

ABRAMOFF: GOPfellas

The DCCC's Stakeholder links to this AP report on the arrest of 3 men in connection with the murder of Miami businessman Gus Boulis, "a murder that happened a few months after he sold a fleet of casino boats" to Jack Abramoff. Josh Marshall says that AP doesn't mention "the quarter million dollars in unexplained payments Abramoff business partner Adam Kidan made" to do of the men arrested. In a separate post, he links to an Orlando Sun-Sentinel timeline of the circumstances surrounding Boulis' death, what he calls look at the few "degrees of separation between your Majority Leader and a Gotti family contract killing."

TChris at TalkLeft notes that acting U.S. Atty for Guam Fred Black was demoted after he notified the DoJ 11/02 that he opened an investigation of Abramoff, and asks: "Can it be a coincidence that this sudden change of personnel and priorities saved Abramoff from an earlier investigation?"

DELAY: The Hopes And Fears For Elections Next Year ...

Liberal Benny's World: "The Austin American-Statesman is reporting that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay could be indicted on criminal charges today. Our fingers are crossed." Late last p.m., DCCC's Stakeholder linked to an AP story reporting that the grand jury's "recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments," and links back to a 9/13 post at Stakeholder saying: "There's been increasing buzz that DeLay may be off the hook indictment-wise," but "things may be a little murkier than they seem. In short, if" Travis Co. DA Ronnie Earle "has given up looking at DeLay because of jurisdiction, why not refer him to the proper channels?"

BLOGS VS. THE MSM I: Nevertheless, FNC Still Doesn't Have A Prime Time Slot To Give Its Puerto-Rican Pugilist

On 9/27, following strong criticism from New York Times public editor Byron Calame, Times editor Bill Keller issued an "Editor's Note" acknowledging that FNC's Geraldo Rivera did not "nudge" officials out of the way in helping to rescue a Katrina victim, as Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley had written. Conservative Mediacrity comments: "After reading" Keller's "dog-ate-homework, childishly defiant rationalization," "grudgingly and dishonestly sliming its way around a correction of its blatantly false report on Geraldo Rivera, I have changed my opinion of the Times. This is not an arrogant newspaper after all! No, what I had thought was arrogance is actually a very deeply engrained stupidity." Prior to the correction, Hoy Story called it potentially libelous: "Rivera is a public figure, and therefore would have to prove that the Times acted with 'malice aforethought' when it attacked him. Based on Keller's 'defense' of his TV columnist's piece, I'd say that Rivera has a good chance of proving that." Liberal Eric Alterman: "The problem, once again, is not bias; it's arrogance."

Liberal watchdog Media Matters argues that despite Calame's "professed intention to maintain accuracy on the Times' op-ed page, Calame has yet to criticize Times columnist John Tierney, whose twice-a-week columns have included several factual inaccuracies." Media Matters writes, "Tierney falsely claimed that Pres. Bush's proposal to address the solvency of Social Security by reducing benefits for upper- and middle-class workers would actually "improve benefits for the poor" and "falsely claimed that "Chileans who control their own private-account pensions don't have to count on politicians or groups like AARP to decide when they can retire."

BLOGS VS. THE MSM II: Malaise Across The Blogosphere

AMERICAblog didn't take well to The Note's practical joke of tweaking and reprinting ex-Pres. Carter '79 "malaise" speech, despite agreeing with the Bush-as-Carter meme: "This isn't parody. It's a serious, legitimate new source publishing a presidential address and claiming it's a scoop they just received. There is no irony in what they wrote in the intro, none at all. Now sure, if you're some geek with a PhD in government you might recognize this as Jimmy Carter's speech from 25 years ago. But otherwise, we're to believe this speech is real. ... Well, yeah, real funny guys. So funny in fact that I won't be reading or trusting anything you write in the future." Among those duped were DC gossip blog Wonkette.

On 9/27 the Los Angeles Times was one of several MSM outlets who followed up on 9/26 reports that the media had overstated deaths and other violence in N.O. after Katrina. Times-Picayune editor Jim Amosson is quoted: "If the [Superdome] and Convention Center had harbored large numbers of middle class white people ... it would not have been a fertile ground for this kind of rumormongering." Conservative Wuzzadem: "Can someone please tell me what he was trying to say there? Because it sounds like he's saying the media erroneously reported" what they did "because poor and/or black people are especially susceptible to (or maybe even prone to trading in) bullshit."

AIR AMERICA: The Last Days?

Last p.m. bloggers Malkin and Brian Maloney appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" to discuss their reporting on Air America's legal and financial problems. On the show, Maloney said: "As things stand now they may be down to their last months unless one of the big guns like [George] Soros comes in..." NRO's Stephen Spruiell notes the appearance, posts the interview in WMV, and wonders of the MSM outlets that haven't been covering this story: "I wonder how the New York Times, the Washington Post and the other news organizations that heralded Air America's arrival will cover its disgraceful departure? If Maloney is right, we might find out soon."

MISCELLANY: Monkey Business (That Is To Say, We've Run Out Of Clever Headlines. Try Back Tomorrow)

• Little Green Footballs digs up a CodePink media advisory, posted to DC Indymedia, which "announced their intention" to get Cindy Sheehan arrested while protesting at the WH on 9/27. The advisory describes their protest as "Nonviolent Civil Disobedience": "Cindy Sheehan will participate in the action and risk arrest as will members of the clergy and other military families."
• CAP's Think Progress' offers a timeline of Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist's HCA stock dealings, starting in '99.
• The Nation DC corresp. David Corn reports at his personal blog, on 9/26 the CPB board elected Gay Hart Gaines (R) as vice chair. Corn points out Gaines was once chair of ex-Speaker Gingrich's former outfit, GOPAC, which in 1990 issued a memo recommending GOP candidates "brand Democrats 'traitors.'" Adds Corn: "Should a supporter of party propagandists be in charge of overseeing the journalism of PBS and NPR? Only in Bushworld does this make sense."
• Freelance journalist Daniel Radosh, at his blog: "The MSM is doing a piss-poor job of covering Scopes II" -- aka Kitzmiller v. DASD -- "Case No doubt some weekly magazine will soon weigh in with more depth, but in the meantime, Panda's Thumb is blogging it, and today links to an anti-ID ACLU blog and a pro-ID one from the Discovery Institute, which it goes on to soundly demolish."
• New York Post's Robert George follows up the "most widely-read post in the brief history" of his Ragged Thots blog -- "Why Am I (Still) A Republican?" -- with today's "Why Am I (Still) Not A Democrat?" The former addressed his "frustrations" as a black GOPer" in light of "various Republican statements during the Katrina aftermath." He writes today: "Why don't I just pack it in and" become a Dem? "Well, it is because it has been made only too clear what Democrats have to offer me -- or anyone who might share some of my rather idiosyncratic views." He also responds to a criticism by black Dem Steve Gilliard, who criticized his recent post, and who frequently makes use of racially charged words and phrases reminiscent of Jim Crow: "How many real, live, actual white racists feel so comfortable in their racism to use these words in public? Steve is obviously not so shy. Too early to say whether Steve will be successful in sparking some revival in massa-slave linguistics. Perhaps they will only be used in this most narrow of circumstances -- as rhetorical bullwhips to be used on the treacherous black conservatives who need to be made into examples."
• The eventually-to-be-renamed coming blog news/ad agency Pajamas Media continues to roll out bios of its participants. Among the latest: Volokh Conspiracy's Eugene Volokh, Balloon Juice's John Cole, conservative columnist Michael Barone and liberal journalist Corn.
• Alarming News' Karol Sheinin finalizes the location for the "NY Blogger Party" she has organized: "It's this Friday at 8pm at K Lounge, 30 W 52nd St between First and Second Avenue. There are 58 bloggers currently RSVP'd to attend. If you're in the NY area this weekend, come on by."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Six Degrees Of Zarqawi

Liberal Blogenlust, on the 9/26 announcement that Zarqawi's No. 2 has been killed: "Does Zarqawi have an infinite supply of lieutenants/deputies/aides/associates/second-in-commands/etc., or do we just arbitrarily declare that every 100th insurgent we capture or kill is "a top aide" to Zarqawi? ... Below is an almost comprehensive list (I'm sure I missed a few) of Zarqawi's 'top lieutenants' we've captured, killed, or acknowledged over the last two and a half years. I count 33."

LEST WE FORGET: The Truth About HuffPo

HuffPo-hosted HuffPo critic Greg Gutfeld reveals the truth about HuffPo: "I now realize that Huffpo is like a bug zapper. It attracts all the pests in your big backyard to one little blog where they can be safely ignored while they die their little bug deaths. It's what I call the Huffpo Attractive Nuisance Strategy. HANS is a lot like the Flypaper strategy, except it makes more noise. "HANS is a startling discovery that we're only now understanding the implications of," says Greg Gutfeld, speaking on the condition that he wear a gardening hat. ... Has-beens and wannabes could not afford to ignore the Huffpo presence on the internet and are driven by their own ego and need for a public platform to flood the blog with their gleeful conspiracies. A source who might also be Greg explains its benefits: "It's better to capture these cranks on the net than at any establishment where they might actually confront the public."

Posted by at September 28, 2005 12:56 PM