Uppity Blogger Guilty of "Sour Grapes"

I received the following comment to my earlier post questioning the Anniston Star's treatment of the Al-Qaqaa "missing explosives" story.

Sounds like sour grapes Lee. [Star publisher] Mr. Ayers is a bonafide reporter/journalist and all you have is your blog which swings so typically to the right that it is amazing it hasn't tipped over completely. Sour grapes.

Sour? I was aiming more for sweetness and light. Nonetheless, constructive criticism is always appreciated.

To respond, though, there are a few major differences between this blog and the Star. First, to Brandt Ayers and his newspaper, I am a mere pissant, despite any delusional fantasies I may occasionally harbor. Another big difference is that I acknowledge my bias, while the Star doesn't. There is no question that the stuff I write will "swing typically to the right." If it doesn't, I hope my friends will plan an intervention.

Anyhow, here's the response I posted, for what it's worth:

Thanks for your comment. You are right. Mr. Ayers is a "bona fide journalist" and I'm just a lowly plebeian in the vast black market of the blogosphere.

However, I don't believe that professional credentials are an entitlement to the unquestioned fealty and adoration that so many in the mainstream media have come to expect. The main reason for the proliferation of news-oriented blogs is that "bona fide" journalists have so often failed to exhibit good faith in covering the news objectively.

Whether the New York Times or the Anniston Star or CNN, the mainstream media has consistently distorted and colored the news to fit its own left-of-center cultural and political agenda. Peter Jennings admitted as much in a 2002 interview with Larry King, when he said:

"Historically in the media, it has been more of a liberal persuasion for many years. It has taken us a long time, too long in my view, to have vigorous conservative voices heard as widely in the media as they now are. And so I think, yes, on occasion there is a liberal instinct in the media which we need to keep our eye on, if you will." (Quoted from L. Brent Bozell III's book Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media, Crown Publishing, 2004)

Blogs serve as a reminder to those in the mainstream media that there are indeed thousands of eyes out here in the hinterlands looking over their shoulders and helping to keep them honest.