Infinite Monkeys

Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Saint Paul over at Fraters Libertas mocking him for missing a closing italics in his post and italicizing his entire site. Then, not 20 minutes later, I did the same thing in this post.

Ah, justice.

I'm a little more cynical/pessimistic about the whole thing. I think the MSM may be able to slide past this one last time, partly because nobody who isn't a news junkie really knows who Eason Jordan is (as opposed to Dan Rather), and the story doesn't really have any salacious qualities like the Lewinsky story. So CNN may be able to "lay low" and let this blow over.

If it does, it may reenforce the MSM's misguided arrogance about their invincibility. Unfortunately, a story still doesn't become A STORY until you start seeing the mainstream outlets referring to it prominently, as they did with Rather and Lewinsky.

My rule of thumb for a news story's "critical mass" is that my wife's parents know about it. When they hear about it on the evening news and Jay Leno, then the story has become unstoppable.

More cynicism: If the MSM can get past this and one or two more scandals, they will be beyond their point of significant vulnerability. Like post-Watergate government, the general public will have grown to accept that this is "the way things are" and stories of corruption, bias, and impropriety will no longer be news.

I want David to be right, but I fear RobbL is. As a dedicated blog reader myself, I often feel the need to step back and remind myself that not everybody reads blogs. I think it might be fair to say most don't even know about them. So while we get all wound up over a story, I fear that it is just passing the general public by.

Extra Apostrophes for AnalMonkey David: ' ' ' ' ' '

Well, score one point for the optimists. Looks like Jordan quit. Now we'll see if the story still has legs.

I am going to have to remain pessimistic on the story still having legs. My guess is Eason was forced out by CNN or Time-Warner in order to kill the story. Other than the blogosphere, the MSM has no incentive to keep this story alive.

Oh, I don't disagree with you, James. But my I stand by what I said: this is a turning point not because the story will continue to grow, but because it represents a wake-up call within the MSM. Expect to see more "investigations" of bloggers ahead, with the goal of discouraging bloggers...

Actually the MSM knew it with Rathergate. Look at how they and their surrogate Columbia attacked blogs in Nov and Dec last year. After their coverup of Eason failed last month everyone knows. IT can not get much uglier than it was a month ago.