I Got Your Stinkin’ Ethics Right Here
Hullabaloo — As a response to the current ethical dilemma of the so-called “activist” bloggers many of whom are into blogging as the “people’s media.”
The larger question of blogger ethics in and of itself is a red herring. It’s suddenly a “concern” of the SCLM and by extension the halls of academe, because they are taking heat from us — and people are listening — and they don’t like it. Sadly, the only bloggers who are going to be restrained by these concerns are on the left. The right wing bloggers are now a fully accepted part of the Right Wing Noise Machine — positioned in the dumb mainstream media’s collective lizard brain as fearless Wild West mavericks defying the establishment. Their “ethics” are the same as any other right wing media — non-existent.
So the left blogosphere will be the focus of this crusade for online ethics. We don’t have institutions like the Claremont Institute who can hire us on as “fellows” — and launder Republican money through it to pay us. We aren’t going to get our marching orders and talking points through the coordinated “left wing” media because there is no coordinated left wing media. We are out here on our own, and when or if we say or do something controversial, there is no institutional defense of us because there is no institution. Certainly, we aren’t going to get paid big bucks to be a member of the team.
So fuck a “code of ethics.” It will only serve to marginalize us.
All we really have, and ever had, is our credibility with our readers as opinion writers and committed activists. We shall have to measure all of our decisions based upon personal integrity and issue a blanket call of caveat emptor. It’s all there is. And, frankly it’s all we need.
ke any sense to anyone? First of all nobody is really talking about a codified book of ethics that have to be followed lock-step. How about some basic guidelines, like not accepting bribes. Or like not being paid by someone who you then boost them and kind of pretend they are not paying you. And if you are boosting them at least say so in the piece directly, not on some other post. Maybe like mentioning it right away. “I should mention that I work for the Dean campaign. And I think he rocks!!” That’s fine with me. Is this asking too much?
The problem from a public perspective is that the left wing bloggers have already sold out. The Rathergate memo and their defense of it was a prime example. The right-wing bloggers were digging and the left-wing bloggers were foolishly defending. Now a primary blog such as this (above) says screw ethics! The DailyKOS says there is an enemy more important than any of this. Do any of these people have any concern about credibility?
It will get worse by the minute. Brad DeLong, a media watchdog of sorts gets into ridiculous parsing of the WSJ article as if anyone cared. Is he Clinton? Bill Gates?
There is something you’ll note about the Bloggergate versus the Armstrong Williams situation. Everyone on the left is defending the bloggers and trivializing ethics. With Williams I see all the right wingers condemning him. I don’t see people cropping up saying, “Heck, it was ok — a matter of interpretation.”
Even one-time columnist Dan Gillmor finds some odd and contrived rationale in his new blog on Grassroots journalism.
The WSJ fell into what I call the “lazy equivalence” trap in this story today about two bloggers who got paid as consultants by the Dean presidential campaign. The article seeks to connect these payments with the vastly more serious Armstrong Williams payola scandal, in which the Bush administration paid the right-wing commentator more than $240,000 to promote an education policy.
What the heck is lazy equivalence? It reminds me of the hooker joke. “Will you take $20?” “What do you take me for, a whore?” ” Will you take $200?” “Ok!” We’ve all heard the joke. So apparently $3000 a month is chicken feed to Dan.
Now what is lost in all this is long-term consequences of comments like “fuck ethics.” There will be a number of lawsuits (I can predict this now with assurance) brought against bloggers for defamation. Libel suits, big ones. I can already see opportunities. One way to make these suits work is to take any first amendment (press) rights away from the entire blogging scene making it much easier to bring these legal actions. On top of that negative comments about ethics will be used in court to show malice, contempt and carelessness adding to the problem. Any blogger who has even remotely said anything such as “fuck ethics” or pooh-poohed any of this can be a target. It all comes out in discovery and it isn’t pretty. The fact that Gillmor and all the uber-bloggers who see this scene as some sort of “people’s journalism” don’t get this, is mind-boggling.
Maybe somebody from right wing radio can write this code of ethics. The people who pay attention to right wing radio can follow this code of ethics. I’ve been called crazy. If I was crazy enough, I’d be making $5 million a year in front of a mike on the AM radio. I guess I could afford drugs, a better car and a new house. I’m here typing, I have a
terminal, a hot coffee and it’s 13 point eight degrees outside. Some idiot is on the radio talking about John Kerry. I’m switching over to FM. I need music. I’m back. Burn out the day, burn out the night. Time is the essence, time everlasting. Getting your code of ethics from the Internet is as dumb as having a code of ethic for the Internet. This sounds like gun control or something like the speed limit on the road. Drive 55 and everybody now is going 70 in turbocharged sports cars. Talk gun control and sales of guns soar. They set records because you can’t have it. So go ahead and try creating blog rules or ethical codes. Everybody will laugh at you and not say a word while doing it. These sound like the people who were for banning books. William Penn was a convict and now you got a famous Brit dressing up as a Nazi. You don’t need a code of ethics to determine who is dumb. The rich can afford to do dumb shit and it sells papers and makes for great television. The Switzerland-based international team of lawyers representing the Nazi victims’ Claims Resolution Tribunal. Maybe a bunch of lawyers will sue the British royal family. Can I write that?
I just read William Safire on blogging. Bloggers are meanstream, but will go mainstream as a center center of comment and local news coverage according to Safire. Everyone will blog for bucks. That’s the problem? Blogging is mean, hey buddy can you spare a dime? Stop the press is depressed. I have witnessed the ‘mainstream’ press in action, all nice people out to make an honest dollar. Believe that and I’ll tell you some more. I guess the idea of this is that if you are doing something for a buck, you are good and mainstream. If you are not getting paid, you are in the meanstream. I guess Safire thinks volunteers suck. It’s a holiday, the market is closed, I’m doing a little blogging. I guess I could be at the mall blowing some cash on stuff. There’s the morality, shop and shop some more. Some clerk can make a moral dollar off the new imported PC card I blow a fifty on. Don’t buy anything online, it might be some meanstream bloggers selling their wares. I could go waste an hour or two at the mall paying retail markup prices. All this because the mall is nice, it is moral, it makes money and I don’t want to be mean. The mall here sucks. The traffic is congested, the food court is full of corporate greasy spoons and the main halls are too small and narrow. It’s mainstream and is owned by some corporate big daddy from out of state. I guess I’d rather sit here and blog. If you enjoy the mall, that is you. I think our mall contributed to a recent flood that wiped out local small business downstream. I’ll stay home and shop online when I can. If that makes me meanstream, at least I’ll save a few gallons of gasoline. How does sending some reporter to the mall to question the Christmas and after shoppers make the world any better? The mall kills Main Street local business and they are the nice people. I guess Safire thinks Wall Street is a beauty contest, full of nice people making money and all that virtue. Blogging isn’t mainstream. Enron was mainstream. The media didn’t know what was going on. What a shocking story, the mainstream is depressed. They are depressing, but Safire is saying bloggers are meanstream. He is good for a laugh. The piece he wrote basically says the press is a bunch of depressed liberals and the bloggers are a bunch of mean spirited jokesters who can’t make an honest buck writing like Safire and the pros do. I guess Safire won’t be blogging any time soon. Blogging is going to go local, as a center of comment for news coverage, like that matters. Then the corporate media masters who pay Bill can control blogging and make it legit by making it a profit center. Maybe CBS will be scooped by the bloggers and the bloggers will get it right. CBS wouldn’t screw things up again. They screwed for the money. It’s the fourth oldest profession in the world. They are all nice people. Maybe Safire will retire along with the others. His column is dated, like his ideas. The guy seems stuck in the Nixon era, but so does the country. I don’t resent Mr. Safire or the old guard media. It seems to me that the idea that blogging is meanstream depends on who is blogging. I’m a nice guy, I think, although the facts do lead to where they lead and that isn’t always a nice place. It’s only depressing if you take it personally. Blogs are just new business, like an open hearth and the story has a life of its own. Let everybody tell the story, if they wish. Blogs are more like religion than business. Getting paid for opinions is a dumb idea. Look at talk radio and the right. No morons left behind.
That doesn’t actually MEAN anything, but it sure SOUNDS nice.
Everything means something if you can figure it out.