Big Media v Bloggers – A Fisking

I wonder if the liberals call a Fisking a Fisking. This is the art of going line by line on an article or editorial and picking it apart. Because Kos, yes that Kos, did a terrific job on fisking some comments by Carol Darr, the head of the Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet at George Washington University.

Here is a sample but head over to, dare I say it and lose my Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Badge, Kos for the rest:

{Darr} For thirty years the campaign finance laws have made a fundamental distinction between political activists and the news media, in order to protect a free press while at the same time limiting the influence of big money on federal elections. Until recently, the distinction between the news media and rest of us was clear and uncontroversial.

Bloggers blur that distinction.

{KOS} What a steaming pile of you know what! Here’s a community project. Use the comments to list examples of how political activists have permeated the “news media” to “blur that distinction”.

Make no mistake, this attempt by Ms. Darr is just the latest by academic pinheads to degrade the role of citizens in the media space. They once dominated the industry, and can’t stand that literally anyone and EVERYONE is now media. And no, I’m not speculating.

and

{Darr}The other consequence is that the privileged status the press currently enjoys will diminish. When that happens, an erosion of its most important privilege, its ability through shield laws to protect the anonymity of its sources, will surely follow. While the FEC has no jurisdiction over shield laws, a change in the rules defining the news media in one arena is bound to affect other laws. As the pool of those considered journalists quickly expands, it is inevitable that the media’s fragile privilege to refuse to answer questions about sources posed by prosecutors and grand juries will narrow.    

The ramifications of the bloggers’ demand are enormous. The issue before the FEC goes to the heart of the fundamental questions that define a democracy’s relationship to a free press: Who should be treated as a journalist, and what special privileges, if any, should they receive?

{KOS} This is about protecting what they see as their special perks. And even though partisans have invaded the news media for some time, Darr is hoping to make an example of bloggers.

Because it’s not about “media” versus “political activists”. It’s DC Establishment versus those of us outside of DC. THAT’s what blowhards like Darr are trying to protect.

Go Kos Go!