A Down Day for Liberty in the Media

Well today was the much ballyhooed premier of Joe The Plumber in the role of war correspondent for Pajamas Media. Color Ed Morrissey over at HotAir less than dazzled. Ditto for Jazz Shaw at PJM themselves. And of course a respectful kudos to PJM for running the critique of themselves. HotAir (same link as above) also points to actual war correspondent Bill Roggio's disapproval. Emphasis is my own. What makes one an actual war correspondent if not first the courage to venture into the war zone for the sake of the story, after all?

Count me personally in amongst the majority of those at LGF who think Joe's heart is in the right place. I've got to believe the bitter rant laid down by Roggio smacks of the green eyed monster. One may reasonably critique the man's lack of experience and subsequent tact, but Roggio merely tears him down as being too stupid to do the job. Undoubtedly this stems from JTP's lack of J-School background.

The difficulty for the media in general here is the infighting happening amongst different outlets. Thus far I particularly think Pajamas has handled the situation beautifully. They've trotted out their new poster boy for war coverage, and neither he nor they appear unapologetic about the fact that he, and by association they, are on Israel's side. Ed Morrissey would have us all believe that Joe ought to keep himself above the partisan fray. To make such a statement as this to me seems to overlook the fact that somebody in the media not named Limbaugh or Hannity has got to be in the fray for the conservative and libertarian voices, and particularly somebody at the correspondent level.

The question arises then, does Joe create too large, too easy of a target for the intelligentsia? Unfortunately in that respect I've kind of got to agree with Morrissey that Joe necessarily needs to reign things in to both legitimize himself, as well as PJM as a truly reliably and pioneering news front. Here's hoping in regards to the grandstanding that took place today, as well as the most assuredly pre-prepared rants unleashed against him, that Joe pulls it together and does a good job of reporting the facts. I have confidence that he'll give a straight delivery from here on out, and further confidence that PJM will give us better video on the conflict in Gaza than that to which we've become accustomed.

My confidence aside, considering the general media bias we've been subjected to over the past year, today was a rough day for our message as pertains to the middle east. Further complicating matters is today's revelation by a once premier conservative voice in Bill O'Reilly, as he's decided he's not going to "second guess" the incoming President Elect on his "stimulus" plan. My, my. When it comes to $775 billion that the taxpayers can never hope to recover, we surely wouldn't want to upset the apple cart!

HotAir's exit question (same link as above) takes us to Newsbusters, where Ken Shepherd reports on Fox News Channel's Roger Ailes direction to his team to "tone down attacks on President-elect Obama."

Tone down attacks on President-elect Obama?

What exactly is it that the press is considering attacks?

Are the American people not entitled to know the details of the highway robbery that is to be this President's landmark legislation? Are we not to be informed of the loss of liberty such a "stimulus" most assuredly implies? How are the American people to understand the implications? How are they to take such numbers as hundreds of billions or trillions with any kind of perspective? Somebody needs to tell them.

If not the media than who?

Well, apparently me.

And hopefully you!