Instapundit on Bush's press conference

[cema]

What are you going to do about Iran's role as a source of destabilization in the area? And its rather obvious efforts to acquire nuclear weapons? And its sponsorship of anti-American terrorism?

A year after the invasion, the Marines are seeking donations from blog readers to set up TV stations in Iraq so as to counter anti-American propaganda from Al Jazeera and other hostile media. Why wasn't this a priority from day one? Why isn't it one now?

Why didn't you fire George Tenet after 9/11?

When Iraqi blogs were reporting problems with Sadr months ago, why didn't the U.S. government take action sooner?

The press, however, seems to have missed a good chance to ask right questions.

Comments

trade bloggers for j's

[email-animal.livejournal.com]

The obvious bias in the text above is towards mentioning
information from blogs. Which is tantamount to the very same
disease - each side is pulling the blanket its way.

This is not to say that B. did a good job - my understanding is that
he hadn't actually said anything outside of the typical "Шарынь
на кичку!"...

Сарынь

[cema.livejournal.com]

Как раз на-днях читал о происхождении этого выражения, по твоей же наводке. :-)

Of course it was about the blogs, specifically blogs versus the conventional media. But it was not politically biased: there are plenty of left-wing blogs as well as right-wing ones. Also, if you read instapundit carefully, you will see he is actually independent and formerly a Democrat. Here it shows too, his questions are not that pleasant to the president, and at the same time cannot be brushed off as partisan politicking.

Re: Сарынь

[email-animal.livejournal.com]

Well, I am not attacting his _political_ bias - I have enough of
political bias of my own. The point really was "us vs. them", where
"us" were the bloggers. Now, just how _do_ you imagine yourself this:

"Mr. President, why do American soldiers in their blogs paint a
different picture of Iraq?"

"What's a 'blog'?"

That is unless the previous day's executive president's brief was
"Internet culture and national security"....

На кичке

[cema.livejournal.com]

There are many reasons Bush is not likely to give a good answer to these questions. But the message was directed by Instapundit towards members of the press, not to him. Of course the blogs will not replace the media, but they are a good supplement and can have a revigorating effect. They are being noticed.

Re: На кичке

[email-animal.livejournal.com]

I should probably try to better explain what I meant.
Basically, I tend to agree with the assessement that
the questions could have been tougher etc... But I find
the proposed list of questions to be self-promoting
and thus, somewhat disingenuous. The very same point
could have been made without attracting attention to
the witty author and the wonderful new medium he uses
to express thoughts.

Nevermind... You will post something tomorrow, and we'll
argue more...

Re: На кичке

[cema.livejournal.com]

The blog questions are tongue-in-cheek, but there are real questions there as well.

Re: На кичке

[email-animal.livejournal.com]

I did not catch the tongue-in-cheek aspect of it.