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Last week, The Brad Blog informs us, the good folks at CNN.com posted a photo of a nuclear plant in North Korea. Also last week, CNN.com posted a photo of a nuclear plant in Iran. A Brad Blog tipster with an eagle eye took a good look at the photos and noticed that they seem to depict the same facility. (You can see for yourself here.) An exasperated Brad wants to know where the photos came from — perhaps, he writes, someone who “may have an interest in ginning-up fears over the two so-far unconquered players in Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil'” was responsible — and asks: “Are there simply no national media organizations left who know how to do the job of reporting accurately, responsibly and in such a way that doesn’t send us to war again due to their utter failure to do their jobs correctly?!”
Speaking of CNN, the Eason Jordan debate raged on over the weekend. Bloggers indignant at today’s New York Times piece on the controversy — which seemed pretty fair to us — are throwing around a lot of “What is happening at the Times?” sentiment. (Incidentally, is there any way the Times could have written about Jordan and not gotten savaged by bloggers? It seems pretty unlikely. Which raises the question: If bloggers treat every single story as a fresh outrage, doesn’t it become harder and harder to tell the real transgressions from the illusory ones? Lately, the blogosphere has looked a lot like a gaggle of boys constantly crying wolf.)
In any event, the Jordan debate is shaping up as one between those who feel the bloggers went overboard, including Steve Lovelady, the managing editor here, and those who feel bloggers rose to the occasion. In the latter camp is Michele Malkin, who writes: “For their fine efforts, these citizen bloggers are being attacked as “morons” and “bible-thumping knuckledraggers” and “hounds” by nervous media nellies aghast at the sight of unwashed amateurs beating down effete journalism’s gates.” (We must have missed Malkin’s column defending Atrios and Kos after we and others criticized lefty bloggers for their conduct in exposing the private life of “Jeff Gannon.”)
And as for the hapless “Gannon” — today, one prominent blogger unearths more embarrassing information about the man, in an effort to apparently ensure there isn’t anyone left on earth unaware of the former fake reporter’s squalid past. We’re not going to link to the takedown — though we realize if you want to find it, you will. Nonetheless, we have a question: What, exactly, is to be gained from further dragging “Gannon” through the mud? He’s already been pulled out of the pressroom and had his privacy invaded. The only reason to go after him now is simply to revel in his downfall, like a bloodthirsty tribe parading the head of a vanquished rival through the crowd.
If you don’t mind, we’d rather not watch.
–Brian Montopoli
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