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December 08, 2004
CBS Using "Vast Left-Wing Blogging Machine"?
Too funny...
First Michelle Malkin goes on a tear about American deserters who've fled to Canada (via KJ):
Fugitive U.S. soldier Jeremy Hinzman is an unrepentant embarrassment to his country of birth. Last year, he deserted from the 82nd Airborne Division, fled to Canada and became the anti-war movement's sexiest man alive. Now, in a desperate bid for refugee status, this AWOL poster boy is collectively smearing our brave men and women in Iraq as war criminals to save his hide.
Do our neighbors to the north really want to become a paradise for America's cut-and-run reprobates? Apparently so. At Hinzman's refugee hearing on Monday, the National Post reports, “demonstrators braved the morning snow and icy winds to show their support, carrying signs such as ‘Canada should welcome war resisters.'"
But it gets even better. RatherBiased points to an interesting story from Martin Kelly of Nonviolence.org:
Yesterday I got a call from a publicist for CBS News’s 60 Minutes. They’re running a story tonight on “Deserters,” U.S. military personnel who have fled to Canada rather than serve in Iraq. She was requesting that I talk up the program on Nonviolence.org. ... In nine years of publishing the peace site, I can’t remember ever getting a call from a publicist before. I’ve talked to reporters from major news networks and papers, and I’ve talked a booking agent or two to arranging appearances on radio shows, but never a publicist.
CBS News has learned that political bloggers aren’t just a cute story to be inserted as filler when the anchor needs a pee break. Back in 1998, Matt Drudge proved that “rouge” internet sites could make the news when he broke the Monica Lewinsky story (or rather elevated it from something all the insider reporters knew to something they all had to report on). And in 2004 his protégés are proving that informal networks of “nobody” bloggers can successfully take on pillars of the establishment.
So now CBS News publicists are courting bloggers. That’s great: hey, if y’all want to buy me that new Treo Smartphone or a gift certificate to Gohn Bros I’ll say Dan Rather is hotter than an armadillo sunning himself between the yellow lines on the interstate...
Kelly muses:
A certain generation loves anything that reminds them of the glory years of 1968. The excitement over the “Deserters” is like that around the unlikely possibility of a new draft: both are fed as much by nostalgia as they are newsworthiness. Both are also ways for older activists to claim the banner of youth activism while actually ignoring youth activists...
The 60 Minutes special will air tonight (Wednesday Dec. 8), at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Posted by Cassandra at December 8, 2004 05:04 PM
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Comments
Kelly is exactly right it is a nostalgia thing. In fact I think I might have said something like that before.
Posted by: Pile On ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.villainouscompany.com/vcblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 8, 2004 05:50 PM
...it's like deja vu, all over again.
Posted by: Cassandra at December 8, 2004 05:59 PM
I remember a very long time ago when a youthful RIslander and the beautiful Mrs. RIslander, of the moment, were strolling along in Toronto - a beautiful city, by the way. Coming around a corner, what did we see? We saw - and heard - a large demonstration going on. Being the nosey little devil that I have always been, I just had to find out what it was all about.
Nearing the crowd, it seemed as if I had stepped into some sort of time warp and traveled back in time. Hair was long, beards were longer, and flannel was in abundance. Essentially, they all looked like me. Though I liked to think that I wore flannel and cords BEFORE it was cool!
Getting back to the point, looking at their signs, I noticed that they were complaining about nearing the time at which they we be dropped from the public dole. Entering a government building we had been heading for, I asked a nice lady inside, who the people were. As it turned out, they were the deserters, and their families, from the US armed forces, and they weren't happy that the Canadian government wouldn't be supporting them for much longer. The lady opined that they could go back to the States. I opined that Canada could keep them. Little did I know Jimmy Carter would come to their rescue.
Posted by: RIslander at December 9, 2004 10:25 AM