blogger network being more knowledgeable

Here’s a great example of the phenomenon Jerry wrote about recently–the blogger network being more knowledgeable about many subjects than the old media “experts.” Juan Cole is a professor at the University of Michigan, an expert on the Middle East and is fluent in Persian, the language of Iran. He recently reported on an instructive encounter with a member of the “old media” in his Informed Comment blog:
I had a very disturbing short email correspondence with a reporter of a major national newspaper who used the inaccurate [Israel should be] “wiped off the face of the map” quote [attributing it to an Iranian leader, in an effort to make him sound bloodthirsty]. When challenged, he said it was “carried by the news wires and is well known” or words to that effect. I pointed out that the “quote” was attributed to a specific speech and that the statement was inaccurately translated. When challenged further he alleged that his trusted translator in Tehran affirmed that Ahmadinejad had said the phrase. When that was challenged, he reported that the translator said that anyway he had said something like it. When I pointed out that the translator was either lying or lazy, the reporter took offense that I had insulted a trusted colleague! I conclude that this reporter is attached to the phrase. He complained about being challenged by “bloggers” and said he was tempted to stop reading “blogs.”
So this is how we got mire in the Iraq morass. Gullible and frankly lazy and very possibly highly biased reporters on the staffs of the newspapers in Washington DC and New York. And they criticize bloggers.

Read more at Jerry Lawson

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