The Rathergate Blogs

As I detailed in the previous post, Power Line seems to have trouble sticking to their positions. They became famous during the Rathergate controversy, a "story" they helped to blow out of proportion. Their underlying argument against Dan Rather and CBS News is that they are guilty of harboring bias, in this case a liberal bias, and that bias is effecting their news coverage. So when I call Power Line a bunch of hypocrites, I do so because they have an obvious conservative bias. Now, of course, almost every blog is biased, but if Power Line gives questionable stories based on questionable memos from conversative news sources a free and uncritical pass, then their biases have gone too far and, thus, they are guilty of hypocrisy.

Power Line isn't alone. Another blog that took the lead in covering Rathergate, which I will now call "The Rathergate Blogs," was Wizbang. They were well known before Rathergate, but that story made them even bigger. Rimone pointed me to a story on Orcinus about Wizbang going after a professor at Utah State University who dares ask whether of not the Killian memos were created in Word or typed on a typewriter. In fact, Wizbang's "reporting" has caused their readers to flood USU with emails calling for the professor's head. In the meantime, while publishing items to their blog that needlessly discredit the professor to the point where it could lead to a libel lawsuit, Wizbang now insists that they aren't bloggers anymore, demanding to be called journalists.

And the right wonders why we think they're a bunch of nazis.

It's ironic that the Rathergate Blogs have so many problems with the truth, since they are the ones who are famous for calling Dan Rather a liar. It's obvious that all this fame and power has gone to their heads, and instead of performing other actual investigations on news stories to find the truth (for example, could you imagine these blogs even touching Operation OUTROVE?) they are using this power for their own partisan purposes. The Rathergate Blogs are not, and never were, interested in the media reporting the truth -- They simply want the media, and everybody else, to submit to the biased spin they put on stories. Obey or suffer. And if you're a college professor that dares to question our authority, well fuck you, we'll do everything in our power to get you fired.

It's one thing to disagree with somebody's opinion. But when you try to ruin this person's life just because they disagree with you, then you've stepped over the line. Let me be the first to say that I hope USU sues Wizbang right off the internet. I'm certainly not turning my back on freedom of speech and the freedom of bloggers to say whatever they want, but when a blogger attempts to use baseless allegations to destroy somebody's life, then they are a scar on the blogosphere. They are not journalists, they are simply hacks who should know better. Attemping to ruin somebody's life just so you can get some more hits is shameful, and those who perform such actions don't deserve to have a blog.