The "left wing blogs" get credit for Gonzalez losing his job.

[Hamlette]

George Stephanopolous, Jay Carney and the LA Times have all given credit to Josh Marshal and "the left wing blogs" for smelling a rat in the firing of US Attorneys and staying on the story.

You can read about it on Josh's site and the LA Times article. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blogs17mar17,0,2952916.story?coll=la-home-nation

Yes, I know, I posted this earlier and am a little surprised at how quickly it dropped. This is it, it seems to me, the model Josh created in this, and earlier stories, turns all of us into the investagative reporters we have wanted.

If you don't read Josh every day, you should, and you should join him in helping with the research. The AG of the US is about to lose his job and were it not for Josh, it would not have happened (IMHO).

We have the power to wake up the MSM. Make them report on the stories of import, if we do our homework. This morning on This Week Stephanopolous and Carney both said it was Josh and the bloggers who brought down Gonzalez. This is the third time the MSM has given Josh credit for this story. Follow along. It could get real intersting and we could do it. Some lefties say "we brought an end to the war in Vietnam with our protests" maybe we can bring an end to this president and this war with our new tool, the Internet.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Gonzalez hasn't lost his job yet. nt.

[NightWatcher]

2. whoopteedo, who's next???

[Hamlette]

15. it's up to you. The new "inside" is the "outside". All power to the people!

I want one of the smilie face icon thingies for the black panter salute so I can use it when I say "all power to the people". I'm thinking it might come back in fashion.

We all have some power to investigate and get "heard". We just need to "organize" our findings.

The thing that I think helped as much as anything is that the MSM has now started their own blogs. Now they are held to the same standards as other blogs. Post BS and they get caught immediately. See Jay Carney on Bush's state of the Union speech. He was made to look a fool in SECONDS. I think that is one reason Jay is giving Josh good ink. He's starting to realize the blogs "get it".

[saltpoint]

3. Gonzales had the duration of his term to date to establish himself as

a just steward of the people's office.

He failed.

If he is ousted, it's his own poor judgment that did the ousting.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. If Gonzo loses his job, Josh Marshall should get a medal

!!

[rodeodance]

5. well, good for George S.

[rodeodance]

6. from latimes: Blogs can top the presses

COLUMN ONE
Blogs can top the presses
Talking Points Memo drove the U.S. attorrneys story, proof that Web writers with input from devoted readers can reshape journalism.
By Terry McDermott, Times Staff Writer
March 17, 2007



Post masters
click to enlarge
Related
- Talking Points Memo
- TPMmuckraker.com
New York — IN a third-floor Flower District walkup with bare wooden floors, plain white walls and an excitable toy poodle named Simon, six guys dressed mainly in T-shirts and jeans sit all day in front of computer screens at desks arranged around the oblong room's perimeter, pecking away at their keyboards and, bit by bit, at the media establishment.

[BlooInBloo]

7. The MSM must acknowledge that bloggers deserve the same Constitutional protections

... that "journalists" currently receive. The list of MSM-failures and blog-successes is getting too long: anti-Iraq war, Social Security, Plame, Libby, and now Gonzales.

If you're gonna compliment us on how well we do YOUR fucking job, the least you could do is come out for journalist protections for us.

Or are you paying lip services to bloggers - or anyone who does the job you SHOULD be doing - while working to kill them behind the scenes? Is it that you simply don't want your job done properly AT ALL?

[annabanana]

8. This is an unhatched chicken, and it doesn't count YET...

If and when it does, I will be cheering in the streets!

[Hamlette]

19. I know, I sexed up my subject line. I posted this earlier and my thread dropped

but it will happen, and if not? Gonzalez and Bush have been so damanged they are less dangerous.

[BlooInBloo]

21. Yah - it's unfortunate that the *only way* to avoid thread-dropping is to say knowingly false things

Sheesh - what DUers will do for attention.

[Hamlette]

25. I'm so lucky to have you to point out my failings.

I'm unworthy.

(Sheesh indeed.)

[wryter2000]

23. It's a major accomplishment

The fact that the story got anywhere at all is directly attributable to work of the bloggers. May they live long and prosper.

[annabanana]

24. granted. . no bloggers, no story.. . . . eom

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Weren't the "left wing blogs" also responsible for the downfall

of Trent Lott? I heard on TV just the other day that his unfortunate statements at Strom Thurmond's birthday party would have been quickly forgotten if they hadn't been picked up by those dreaded "left wing blogs".

[Hamlette]

12. that's right....good catch...or rather...memory, also, Josh gets credit for stopping Bush on SS

by showing there was so little support for "privatization" in Congress.

[Old and In the Way]

10. Investigative journalism is alive and well and happening on the internet.

The article does make a valid observation that the internet allows the reader to contribute to story development. It really adds a new dimension in the way information is collected, reported, and disseminated. Feedback is immediate and updated in near real time. And the beauty is that the information is independent of the editorial influences of major corporations. The major news business like the LA Times ought to be taking this story quite seriously....blogs like TPM will continue to grow at the expense of their market share.

[kestrel91316]

11. Sometimes I think DU functions like a giant brain. We have thousands

of people, all doing their own reading and investigating and correlating and then sharing with everyone else. I think it is a somewhat disorganized, but untimately very effective means of processing huge amounts of information.

There are a lot more of US investigating Bushco than there are reporters in the MSM doing the same. So of course we'll get more done, and faster.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. You could say that it takes thousands of people to keep track

of all the scandals that are happening with this administration.

[Hamlette]

16. the beauty is Josh "organized" that brain and got it to the attention of the MSM

and it is paying off in a very real way.

Read the LA Times article if you don't read Josh.

And then read Josh.

[rosesaylavee]

13. K & R - why aren't there more RECs for this post????

Americans are starved for the truth... bloggers are supplying it. Traditional journalists and news outlets are sitting up and taking notice. FINALLY!

[Hamlette]

17. thanks Rose. I posted this earlier with a less sexy subject line and it dropped quickly

I too don't understand why more people aren't paying attention. It's great to have a place to come and rant but here is a model we can all use to fix our country. And the beauty is, we can do it by doing what we love best, surfing the Internet and sharing our finds.

[Eric J in MN]

18. Let's give out credit AFTER Alberto Gonzales resigns...

...IF he resigns before the end of Bush's term.

[TheBaldyMan]

34. Well if it's him or Karl Rove that gets the chop, who is most likely to go first?

I think Gonzo's days are numbered. Even more e-mails have been subpoenaed, don't forget that. The Bushies seem to have laid a heavily trampled trail in their arrogance.

[AnnInLa]

20. That is the one blog I have to check about 50

times a day! Refresh, refresh. I sent them some $$ for their startup of the muckraker site, and they will soon ask for more $$ to expand their enterprise...so keep them in mind!

[ninkasi]

22. Great post, thanks Hamlette

One thing that impresses me is that the thousands of bloggers who research, and bring attention to the facts of how corrupt this administration is, do it because they love their country. They are, except for a very few, unpaid. Their reward is the satisfaction when their writing results in shining a spotlight on the criminal activities of the BFEE, and getting them to stop some of their worst abuses of power.

Much, much more needs to be done, but at least we have Dems in control of the Congress, and now have subpoena power, so perhaps things will move forward more quickly now. I hope this gets many more kicks and recommends, because it's like a tonic, knowing that together, we might be able to make a difference. The big reward, of course, is the restoral of our Constitution, and taking our country back from the neocons.

[WinkyDink]

26. Chickens, hatched, and all that.

[Venus Dog]

27. This is why I keep saying MSM is irrelevant

Instead of writing about what Timmy or Tweety said, we should be writing about what Josh or Daily Kos said

[Hamlette]

28. true enough, and all three of us can overthrow the world!

we need a megaphone. currently, that's the MSM.

what this says is we are starting to own the MSM. As well we should. I'm so tried of Drudge controlling the MSM, its time we did.

[Cleita]

29. The RW seems to want people to believe that and yet nothing

could be further from the truth. There are as many RW blogs and websites as there are left wing, so it's not like we are stifling their opinions like they sifle left wing opinions on the MSM. Cheesh! I guess they don't want us to have any voice anywhere because when we do, the truth trumps lies any day.

[Morgana LaFey]

30. Nah, I'm not sure I WANT to wake up the MSM

I think I'd rather just continue to replace them.

Think about it: they're over. Done. Kaput. Like Humpty Dumpty. Why? Because no one paper or even teevee news outfit (not even cable) can cover it all anyway. Long live the internets, where all of us can come and put together our own daily paper from choices around the world, just as Bill Moyers said he does these days some time ago.

It's all over for them. Our best bet is to continue to be proactive and carve out exactly how we want things to be.

[Hamlette]

33. there is wisdom in what you say BUT

Drudge has been driving stories for nearly 10 years (remember Monica?) so I don't think we can control it. At least our voice can be heard through people/places like Talking Points Memo. I'd much rather the media look to Josh than Drudge. At least Josh bases his "stuff" on facts and writes about issues that matter, not blue dresses.

[Morgana LaFey]

35. nevermind

[live love laugh]

31. I think the credit goes to Gonzalez. How about that freepers? n/t

[riverdeep]

32. Many in the established press

do 'get it' now. The newpapers that are poised to grow financially have a very strong internet presence. At first, they resented the bloggers as lame wannabes who sit in their sweatpants in the basement while they, the print people, are the real journalists. Some still think this way.

But, let's not forget this power cuts both ways. Little green footballs
was influential in steering the TANG memos story on CBS in a way that obfuscated the real story, that Bush was AWOL. They also made Dan Rather look like a schmuck. Their side also has more money to fund these asswipes.