Pajamas Media blogger Little Green Footballs hit a home run, again, with its coverage of the Reuters distortion. Michelle Malkin, also with PJM, has been kicking MSM butt as well.
Congratulations messages to bloggers are beginning to trickle in, including one from an unlikely source, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker.
Here's what Kathleen Parker wrote about bloggers late last year:
Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow. Some bloggers do their own reporting, but most rely on mainstream reporters to do the heavy lifting. Some bloggers also offer superb commentary, but most babble, buzz and blurt like caffeinated adolescents competing for the Ritalin generation's inevitable senior superlative: Most Obsessive-Compulsive.
Even so, they hold the same megaphone as the adults and enjoy perceived credibility owing to membership in the larger world of blog grown-ups. These effete and often clever baby "bloggies" are rich in time and toys, but bereft of adult supervision. Spoiled and undisciplined, they have grabbed the mike and seized the stage, a privilege granted not by years in the trenches, but by virtue of a three-pronged plug and the miracle of WiFi.
And from today's Parker column:
The blogosphere has been buzzing the past several days about doctored photographs, faked footage and even the possibility that Qana was manipulated, if not orchestrated, by Hezbollah.
True or false? That seems increasingly to be a question for news consumers, who have to be detectives as they digest the day’s headlines and cutlines.
In the past week, for instance, at least two photos shot in Lebanon and distributed by Reuters were determined to have been doctored. Best known of the two is an image showing black smoke plumes allegedly caused by an Israeli strike on south Beirut.
The photo, snapped and enhanced by freelance photographer Adnan Hajj, was altered to make damage from the strike seem much worse than it was, as revealed by blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs.
However, after the revelations of the last few days, I wonder if Kathleen Parker has second thoughts about that 2005 column.
Technorati tags: Kathleen Parker Michelle Malkin Journalism Blogging Media Pajamas Media Hezbollah Israel ישראל الإسلام Lebanon
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