Vodkapundit - Beware the Dark Side

Beware the Dark Side

Posted by Stephen Green · 6 March 2005

One of the blogosphere's own has made it to the big game:

Another signal moment for bloggers is to occur this morning, when Garrett M. Graff, who writes a blog about the news media in Washington, is to be ushered into the White House briefing room to attend the daily press "gaggle."
Mr. Graff, 23, may be the first blogger in the short history of the medium to be granted a daily White House pass for the specific purpose of writing a blog, or Web log. A White House spokesman said yesterday that he believed Mr. Graff was the first blogger to be given credentials.

He is being given a press pass as the editor of FishbowlDC (www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc), a blog that is published by Mediabistro.com, which offers networking and services for journalists.

I offer my wholehearted congratulations to Garrett – and a stern warning, too.

While blogs are often looked down upon for not doing enough original reporting*, I think it's important - even vital - for bloggers to remain outside the system.

The MSM often calls itself "The Fourth Estate," meaning, "the fourth branch of government." While the media didn't coin the term (18th Century British pol Edmund Burke probably did that), they certainly do seem to believe it. And why shouldn't they?

MSM bigshots attend all the major functions. They, like senators, can endlessly debate proposed legislation. They enjoy fine food and wine with powerful politicians at nice restaurants. They mingle freely with K Street lobbyists. Their views are widely read, widely sought, and widely respected. In some shameful cases, certain MSM pundits have taken government paychecks to parrot the government line.

In terms of power, influence, and prestige, a mid-level, Washington-based MSM guy probably ranks with a mid-level (or higher) Washington bureaucrat. Your most popular MSM television personalities wield more power than any single politician other than the President.

Is it any wonder the MSM considers itself (if only half in jest) to be a part of the government? Because, really, the line between government and media is getting fuzzier every year.

That's where bloggers come in.

We're outsiders. We're cranks. We aren't caught up in the system. Those are our strengths. As individuals, they can be weaknesses – even a moderately successful blog like this one is read by only a few thousand people each day. But in aggregate, the blogosphere works because we aren't enjoying expense account dinners with the Assistant Undersecretary of State for Screwing Things Up in Some Already Screwed Up Place. We don't consider the personalities we write about to be friends or sources. We have our causes, but we don't have to hide them behind a threadbare veil of "impartiality." We aren't being whispered sweet nothings (and being paid sweet somethings) by powerful lobby groups – well, I'm not, anyway. We know exactly where Power stops and We begin: Right here, at our keyboards.

Media, government, whatever – to us, everything is fair game. Whatever respect blogs have earned in the last couple of years, we've earned in part because we aren't politicians, appointees, slick columnists, blow-dried TV personalities – or flunkies to any of the above. We own ourselves. We aren't caught up in the system.

The blogger who gets access, is the blogger on the road to irrelevance if he doesn't watch himself.

*An outright lie in the case of some blogs, and spot on in the case of this one.

Comments

In my blather over the past 24 hours about Apple v. dePlame, I wrote someplace that bloggers are inherently very humble people. I don't mean we're not arrogant little snots; we are, to a man. I mean we're very cognizant of the fact that we're just people with opinions. I'm nobody special. I'm just a guy with access to a computer and a willingness to write what I think.

I think the minute somebody crosses the line and starts thinking of himself as part of a club, as some kind of insider, he gives up an essential part of his blogness.

Of course, it's easy for me to say that, because I've never been invited to the White House or had my name appear in the National Review. Ask me how I feel about this in six months. I'm as like as not to tell you that I think bloggers are consummate media insiders who live on a higher plane of existence, and that anybody without a press badge is just a sheep waiting to be led by the sound of my Movable Type-enabled bell.

Basically I'm saying that I have my principles, and that they'll still be true long after I've sold out.

Posted by: Jeff Harrell at March 6, 2005 10:53 PM

Let's give the guy a chance.
The blogs have established themselves by weilding influence, they officially became players in 2004 and with influence comes access and other perks.
And to a far truer degree than with the MSM, if a blogger looses credibility, his readership will dissipate. In a hurry.
It's just my opinion, but I think the position of the crank and the outsider were positions that at one time many in the MSM could claim, to some degree. The present situation the MSM finds itself in is a testament to how fat, lazy and sclerotic they've become. To how much they've sold out in order to be in the club.
Now comes the new kid on the block, lean & mean, an outsider, looked down upon. But the new kid just ate the old man's lunch. That got people's attention, in government and the MSM. You bet. I suspect that there'll be more blogs at the whitehouse and elsewhere as time goes on. Some will be coopted by the influence, and the trappings that go with it, some won't. Let's evaluate each one on their own merits and if they become part of the system that they were originally reporting on, people will see it, then watch their credibility and readership decline.
Stephen, I think your right in saying that the bloggers are and should be the cranks and the outsiders, pointing out the turd in the punchbowl. When some become a parody of themselves and cease to provide information, others will come along to take up the slack. The hunger for real news and intelligent commentary will remain constant.
I hope this guy does well and I hope he does a better job than many of the MSM do. Time will tell.

Posted by: Tim P at March 7, 2005 12:16 AM

Footnote about the "Fourth Estate"...

Edmund Burke was about as close to modern elitist liberal as you could be back in his day. He was a die-hard monarchist, and a strong proponent of the ruling class. He abhorred the French Revolution, largely because of the damage that it inflicted on the concept of the ruling elite.

For someone like Burke to elevate the media to the status of a branch of government is hardly surprising, and speaks volumes about the media's rampant sense of entitlement, superiority, and invincibility.

Posted by: Mike M at March 7, 2005 07:08 AM

IIRC, the phrase "Fourth Estate" comes from the pre-1789 French division of society into three estates (classes): nobles, clergy, and commoners. When the French king (infrequently) called a parlement, the three estates voted among themselves, like the British Lords/Commons.

So the "Fourth Estate" means the MSM thinks of itself as the equivalent of the US House or Senate. Still arrogant, but not quite as arrogant as considering itself a branch of government.

Posted by: Raymund at March 7, 2005 08:22 AM

That is correctly spelled "gaggeleh". It is Yiddish, and means a small gag, not enough to actually silence anyone.

Posted by: triticale at March 7, 2005 09:12 AM

Your most popular MSM television personalities wield more power than any single politician other than the President.

Bill Gates thought something similar, once, and occasionally made comments along those lines.

Then Bush the elder ordered the US military to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

That's roughly when Bill Gates stopped making those comments. There's a difference between power and POWER, and Mr. Gates is intelligent enough to know the difference... which makes him considerably more intelligent than the MSM bigshots.

Posted by: rosignol at March 7, 2005 04:19 PM