Yonivore
09-30-2004, 02:59 PM
...to the door at PBS!
On Notice (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/698zkzup.asp)
from the blog:
"We may have another moment tonight. Jim Lehrer takes his seat as debate moderator with the PBS brand as firmly affixed to his back as CBS is to Dan Rather's. Moderating a presidential debate never carried much of a risk for the mother ship in the past, but in this era of new media, any detectable bias on Lehrer's part will result in a cyber-tsunami headed towards PBS affiliates across the country."
"The key is 'detectable,' and the arbitrators of that won't be the folks who ignored the Agent of Orange story on Wednesday morning. It will be the viewers themselves, working through the blogosphere, posting on FreeRepublic.com, calling into talk radio, and canceling their pledges to local PBS affiliates if their verdict on Lehrer's performance is negative. If Lehrer goes in the tank for Kerry, expect an enormous blowback--as predictable as the one which followed CBS's foisting of forgeries on the public. Only PBS is much more vulnerable to viewer dismay than the Boss Tweeds at Black ."
"The powers at old media may think of themselves as Rome and the bloggers as the Cimbri, but they are much more like the Red Hats of the Vatican in 1517 when Luther started hammering. At first indifferent, then angry, then threatening, and then bested and thrown into crisis. The counter-reformation within the old media cannot arrive too soon."
On Notice (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/698zkzup.asp)
from the blog:
"We may have another moment tonight. Jim Lehrer takes his seat as debate moderator with the PBS brand as firmly affixed to his back as CBS is to Dan Rather's. Moderating a presidential debate never carried much of a risk for the mother ship in the past, but in this era of new media, any detectable bias on Lehrer's part will result in a cyber-tsunami headed towards PBS affiliates across the country."
"The key is 'detectable,' and the arbitrators of that won't be the folks who ignored the Agent of Orange story on Wednesday morning. It will be the viewers themselves, working through the blogosphere, posting on FreeRepublic.com, calling into talk radio, and canceling their pledges to local PBS affiliates if their verdict on Lehrer's performance is negative. If Lehrer goes in the tank for Kerry, expect an enormous blowback--as predictable as the one which followed CBS's foisting of forgeries on the public. Only PBS is much more vulnerable to viewer dismay than the Boss Tweeds at Black ."
"The powers at old media may think of themselves as Rome and the bloggers as the Cimbri, but they are much more like the Red Hats of the Vatican in 1517 when Luther started hammering. At first indifferent, then angry, then threatening, and then bested and thrown into crisis. The counter-reformation within the old media cannot arrive too soon."