Disconnecting the ‘Annex’ 
On 2/7/06 this blog got an annex on wordpress.com that mirrored the content here.
The purpose was twofold: 1. It allowed people to comment on my writing and 2. It would trackback to blogs I Iink to. Over time these functions became less important. People don’t pay so much attention to trackback, and I added Disqus to this site for comments, and don’t even watch the comments on the annex. That’s bad cause I miss important stuff, and people think I don’t care. Oy.
So it’s time to bid adieu to the annex, it’ll stay there as long as Matt & Co keep wordpress.com running (thanks!) but this will be the last post to be mirrored there.
If you’re subscribed to the feed you should redirect your reader to this feed:
And since the first post there had a cool picture of comedian Jack Benny, I thought it was fitting that the last one should have that picture as well. 🙂
Edwards scandal idicts MSM and political bloggers
This morning two editorials one in the LA Times and the other in The Moderate Voice, a political blog, provide a fresh perspective on the Edwards scandal.
The story broke in the National Enquirer, months ago, long before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, yet mainstream press and bloggers failed to carry the story and investigate further. So far the stories have only been about the failure of mainstream press, but bloggers failed too.
CNN interviewed the editor in chief of the Enquirer, David Perel, yesterday.
Tim Rutten, writing in the Times says that this will “dethrone” mainstream media and “signals the end of the era in which traditional media set the limits of acceptable political journalism.”
Shaun Mullen, writing in The Moderate Voice says: “The mainstream media let us down yet again by failing to take seriously first rumors and then credible accounts of the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair.”
Neither statement goes far enough.
The reports were out there, there was tentative coverage in MSM and blogs, but the story we all took the word of reputable sources over the disreputable Enquirer.
Rutten is right, it’ll never be the same again.
Update: I’ve Been Banned At DailyKos Because Of John Edwards.
That’s what happens when you “blog” somewhere you can be banned for saying something unpopular.
Blogging is the unedited voice of a person.
Kos is definitely not a blogging platform, if this story is true.
Scripting News Annex 
Posted by Bob Morris on August 9, 2008 at 9:01 am
1) The Enquirer has been wrong lots of times, so many probably thought caution was in order, 2) Many on the Left didn’t want to believe it (your point, well-taken), 3) However, blogs on the Right were all over the story from the start, so was Drudge.
I believe we were both at the Gnomedex where Edwards spoke. That kind of event will not be happening soon again for him. A couple of years in political exile then maybe he can enter the arena again.
Posted by Lee Stranahan on August 9, 2008 at 9:28 am
The weird thing that happened on Kos is that the system that was designed to ban trolls through community action actually became the means of tromping down dissenting opinions. It’s an 180 degree inversion.
I write a post – right or wrong, it’s a cogent post. Actual content. The response from some people is to post I Can Haz Cheesburger FAIL pictures or recipes. Which behavior is the Troll behavior? But it’s the POST that gets knocked and the disruption that gets praised.
I write a little more about the cognitive problems at Kos here…
http://stranahan.com/2008/08/09/massive-fail-how-the-kos-community-got-edwards-wrong/