Score one for the blogosphere… on the bad side

It is a lesson that as a blogger, every blogger must inherently worry about. What you report affects people’s lives, even as you are typing from the sanctity of your personal home and looking up information on the internet. This is the lesson we bloggers must take to heart.

On December 20, 2006 a conservative blogger Michelle Malkin reported that a source used by the Associated Press in Iraq, a Jamil Hussein did not exist.

This was used to show that the AP was making up false anti-war stories.

Well yesterday the AP reports:

Iraq’s Interior Ministry acknowledged today “that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media…”

As these things go this ranks up there as an absolute disaster. You have an irresponsible blogger, making irresponsible claims that end up getting someone fired.

The upside about blogging is that it keeps the mainstream media on their toes and ensures better reporting. The downside is the you have untrained amateurs or in this case a political pundit with power and influence and a political shtick carelessly or maliciously harms another person.

As a blogger I am a strong supporter of the medium. I think that locally and nationally we need voices who can call it as it is. I have in a very short time, I believe made an impact in the community. I note that County Supervisor Helen Thomson read from this blog. That the Woodland Daily Democrat used a blog entry on their editorial page. That the Senior Citizen’s Commission will have an agenda item this Thursday related to this blog. So there is a tremendous amount of interest and impact already for this new blog. This is a note of caution, with power and influence comes responsibility. But this is a note of caution to all of us to remember that what we say does impact lives.

—Doug Paul Davis reporting

Author

  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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Elections

8 comments

  1. Steve Gilliard over at The News Blog has covered this extensively, with great commentary by visitors. (an excellent blog, by the way)

    the curious part of the story is the mendaciousness of Eason Jordan, a former CNN news executive, in playing along with Malkin’s (and other right wing bloggers) attack upon AP, when he announced, just before this story broke that there should be an independent investigation of AP

    this from a guy who picked “military consultants” for CNN before the start of the Iraq war upon the advice of the Pentagon

    –Richard Estes

  2. Steve Gilliard over at The News Blog has covered this extensively, with great commentary by visitors. (an excellent blog, by the way)

    the curious part of the story is the mendaciousness of Eason Jordan, a former CNN news executive, in playing along with Malkin’s (and other right wing bloggers) attack upon AP, when he announced, just before this story broke that there should be an independent investigation of AP

    this from a guy who picked “military consultants” for CNN before the start of the Iraq war upon the advice of the Pentagon

    –Richard Estes

  3. Steve Gilliard over at The News Blog has covered this extensively, with great commentary by visitors. (an excellent blog, by the way)

    the curious part of the story is the mendaciousness of Eason Jordan, a former CNN news executive, in playing along with Malkin’s (and other right wing bloggers) attack upon AP, when he announced, just before this story broke that there should be an independent investigation of AP

    this from a guy who picked “military consultants” for CNN before the start of the Iraq war upon the advice of the Pentagon

    –Richard Estes

  4. Steve Gilliard over at The News Blog has covered this extensively, with great commentary by visitors. (an excellent blog, by the way)

    the curious part of the story is the mendaciousness of Eason Jordan, a former CNN news executive, in playing along with Malkin’s (and other right wing bloggers) attack upon AP, when he announced, just before this story broke that there should be an independent investigation of AP

    this from a guy who picked “military consultants” for CNN before the start of the Iraq war upon the advice of the Pentagon

    –Richard Estes

  5. Credible blogs like the People’s Vanguard of Davis build and maintain their credibility by being honest, truthful and fair. They must be accountable and police themselves by being committed to high ethical standards. To Doug Paul Davis’ credit the Vanguard is committed to those standards.

    Since the launch of the Vanguard this past summer Doug has worked to maintain an accurate, fact based blog which brings to the attention of our community issues and facts that are not being reported either accurately or at all in our community. This is truly a valuable public service. Obviously, that value will only continue if the blog maintains the integrity of its posts whether the information comes from contributors, research, anonymous sources and/or commentators. To date the People’s Vanguard of Davis has done this.

    I am heartened to have witnessed over the past months the willingness of Doug and his contributors to acknowledge diverse opinions and correct theirs when shown to be in error. He has also acknowledged and corrected mistakes. This builds trust and confidence in the blog. That is a breath of fresh air as citizens using this blog come together to discuss and understand their community and work to make it a better place.

    As Doug Paul Davis points out, with power and influence comes responsibility and the use of blogs cannot be any less accountable. The irresponsibility of what Michelle Malkin has done is in keeping with her usual style of slander and spurious comments, which she displays frequently on Fox News (Faux News) as a paid right wing Republican political pundit. She and her “sister” Ann Coulter specialize in and symbolize the neo-con thinking that has deliberately misinformed and manipulated our nation helping to drive the corrupt public policies of the Republican Congresses during the past 12 years as well as the George W. Bush administration. Both Malikin and Coulter thrive in that phony “fair and balanced” Fox New (Faux News) environment and on right wing talk radio.

    Credible blogs, can be the antidote to the misinformation, manipulation and omission by lazy columnists and journalists as well as the right wing media whether they be conservative newspapers, Fox/Faux News, right wing radio & TV talk shows and the neo-con websites devoted to misleading our fellow citizens. The People’s Vanguard of Davis is becoming a local version of national progressive blogs committed to speaking the truth.

    Congratulations to the People’s Vanguard of Davis!

  6. Credible blogs like the People’s Vanguard of Davis build and maintain their credibility by being honest, truthful and fair. They must be accountable and police themselves by being committed to high ethical standards. To Doug Paul Davis’ credit the Vanguard is committed to those standards.

    Since the launch of the Vanguard this past summer Doug has worked to maintain an accurate, fact based blog which brings to the attention of our community issues and facts that are not being reported either accurately or at all in our community. This is truly a valuable public service. Obviously, that value will only continue if the blog maintains the integrity of its posts whether the information comes from contributors, research, anonymous sources and/or commentators. To date the People’s Vanguard of Davis has done this.

    I am heartened to have witnessed over the past months the willingness of Doug and his contributors to acknowledge diverse opinions and correct theirs when shown to be in error. He has also acknowledged and corrected mistakes. This builds trust and confidence in the blog. That is a breath of fresh air as citizens using this blog come together to discuss and understand their community and work to make it a better place.

    As Doug Paul Davis points out, with power and influence comes responsibility and the use of blogs cannot be any less accountable. The irresponsibility of what Michelle Malkin has done is in keeping with her usual style of slander and spurious comments, which she displays frequently on Fox News (Faux News) as a paid right wing Republican political pundit. She and her “sister” Ann Coulter specialize in and symbolize the neo-con thinking that has deliberately misinformed and manipulated our nation helping to drive the corrupt public policies of the Republican Congresses during the past 12 years as well as the George W. Bush administration. Both Malikin and Coulter thrive in that phony “fair and balanced” Fox New (Faux News) environment and on right wing talk radio.

    Credible blogs, can be the antidote to the misinformation, manipulation and omission by lazy columnists and journalists as well as the right wing media whether they be conservative newspapers, Fox/Faux News, right wing radio & TV talk shows and the neo-con websites devoted to misleading our fellow citizens. The People’s Vanguard of Davis is becoming a local version of national progressive blogs committed to speaking the truth.

    Congratulations to the People’s Vanguard of Davis!

  7. Credible blogs like the People’s Vanguard of Davis build and maintain their credibility by being honest, truthful and fair. They must be accountable and police themselves by being committed to high ethical standards. To Doug Paul Davis’ credit the Vanguard is committed to those standards.

    Since the launch of the Vanguard this past summer Doug has worked to maintain an accurate, fact based blog which brings to the attention of our community issues and facts that are not being reported either accurately or at all in our community. This is truly a valuable public service. Obviously, that value will only continue if the blog maintains the integrity of its posts whether the information comes from contributors, research, anonymous sources and/or commentators. To date the People’s Vanguard of Davis has done this.

    I am heartened to have witnessed over the past months the willingness of Doug and his contributors to acknowledge diverse opinions and correct theirs when shown to be in error. He has also acknowledged and corrected mistakes. This builds trust and confidence in the blog. That is a breath of fresh air as citizens using this blog come together to discuss and understand their community and work to make it a better place.

    As Doug Paul Davis points out, with power and influence comes responsibility and the use of blogs cannot be any less accountable. The irresponsibility of what Michelle Malkin has done is in keeping with her usual style of slander and spurious comments, which she displays frequently on Fox News (Faux News) as a paid right wing Republican political pundit. She and her “sister” Ann Coulter specialize in and symbolize the neo-con thinking that has deliberately misinformed and manipulated our nation helping to drive the corrupt public policies of the Republican Congresses during the past 12 years as well as the George W. Bush administration. Both Malikin and Coulter thrive in that phony “fair and balanced” Fox New (Faux News) environment and on right wing talk radio.

    Credible blogs, can be the antidote to the misinformation, manipulation and omission by lazy columnists and journalists as well as the right wing media whether they be conservative newspapers, Fox/Faux News, right wing radio & TV talk shows and the neo-con websites devoted to misleading our fellow citizens. The People’s Vanguard of Davis is becoming a local version of national progressive blogs committed to speaking the truth.

    Congratulations to the People’s Vanguard of Davis!

  8. Credible blogs like the People’s Vanguard of Davis build and maintain their credibility by being honest, truthful and fair. They must be accountable and police themselves by being committed to high ethical standards. To Doug Paul Davis’ credit the Vanguard is committed to those standards.

    Since the launch of the Vanguard this past summer Doug has worked to maintain an accurate, fact based blog which brings to the attention of our community issues and facts that are not being reported either accurately or at all in our community. This is truly a valuable public service. Obviously, that value will only continue if the blog maintains the integrity of its posts whether the information comes from contributors, research, anonymous sources and/or commentators. To date the People’s Vanguard of Davis has done this.

    I am heartened to have witnessed over the past months the willingness of Doug and his contributors to acknowledge diverse opinions and correct theirs when shown to be in error. He has also acknowledged and corrected mistakes. This builds trust and confidence in the blog. That is a breath of fresh air as citizens using this blog come together to discuss and understand their community and work to make it a better place.

    As Doug Paul Davis points out, with power and influence comes responsibility and the use of blogs cannot be any less accountable. The irresponsibility of what Michelle Malkin has done is in keeping with her usual style of slander and spurious comments, which she displays frequently on Fox News (Faux News) as a paid right wing Republican political pundit. She and her “sister” Ann Coulter specialize in and symbolize the neo-con thinking that has deliberately misinformed and manipulated our nation helping to drive the corrupt public policies of the Republican Congresses during the past 12 years as well as the George W. Bush administration. Both Malikin and Coulter thrive in that phony “fair and balanced” Fox New (Faux News) environment and on right wing talk radio.

    Credible blogs, can be the antidote to the misinformation, manipulation and omission by lazy columnists and journalists as well as the right wing media whether they be conservative newspapers, Fox/Faux News, right wing radio & TV talk shows and the neo-con websites devoted to misleading our fellow citizens. The People’s Vanguard of Davis is becoming a local version of national progressive blogs committed to speaking the truth.

    Congratulations to the People’s Vanguard of Davis!

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