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Easongate

I’ve been following this whole “Easongate” scandal with a little bit of awe.

(In case you haven’t been following it, here‘s the post that started it all. Apparently CNN Chief News Executive Jordan Eason told a global forum in Davos that a dozen journalist deaths in Iraq were not “collateral damage” but had been “targeted” by U.S. forces. The blogosphere has pounced and now there’s a raging blog-controversy).

My first reaction was — it’s not much of a story. I mean, there’s no publicly-available tape, no transcript, and apparently no one was taking notes. So if I was writing an article about this, I’d have to take Jordan’s word that he meant the the military had not “targeted” the journalists because they were journalists, but in a case of mistaken identity. It’s a reasonable enough explanation.

What’s impressive, though, is the blogosphere’s ability to tease out every aspect of this story, and transform what I considered pretty much a non-story into a real scandal. I’m sure the mainstream press will have to report on it, sooner or later — probably as a meta-story on the blog-controversy. (As I write this, a number of bloggers are making hay of the MSM’s “cover-up” of this story). They’re basically forcing their own news judgment onto the mainstream press.

It’s also striking to see, yet again, how much certain people hate the press…

Anyway – I’m on my way to Dunedin, to visit my sister Meredith. We’ll see what the Internet situation will be there.

P.S. – Watched the Super Bowl at this bar in Christchurch with my uncle — enormous screen, maybe the biggest I’ve ever seen in a pub. Lots of expats and Yanks on break from McMurdo Station taking in the game on a nice Monday afternoon. Hurray for the PATRIOTS!

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