Carpe Datum

Form Letter

Gleen Greenwald has a helpful outline for professional pundits and journalists who wish to write to any blogger who criticizes their work. You can say these things in any order, but for full effect, all should appear in your letter.

1 - You never read the blog in question. Your own work, on the other hand, is read by many important and influential people, and you have more important friends you speak to regularly, often joking about the unwashed masses out there like bloggers.

2 - You are certain the blog in question that you have never read or heard of before writing this letter is biased, unprofessional, amateurish, unserious, etc.

3 - Unlike the blogger in question, you do actual "research" before writing anything or asking questions (this is especially important when you are criticized because you said something like "you didn't have time to do any research on this topic" or "this topic is too complicated for me to explain"). You might want to separate items 2 and 3 by a few paragraphs so the inherent contradiction isn't quite so glaring.

4 - You are routinely criticized by "both sides" and so by definition are the epitome of neutrality. Try to insert as much condescension into this blatantly obvious point as you can.

5 - Point out that you are privy to a lot of knowledge that the pitiful blogger doesn't have. Just because you never report it doesn't mean it isn't true, and if only the blogger knew what you know, the blogger would be deeply ashamed for criticizing you.

As Greenwald points out, widely read bloggers like him get letters like these routinely from various pundits and journalists, and they all follow a similar outline. One wonders what the state of journalism would be like if the people who write these letters would have one iota of that same skeptical anger toward sources who frequently lie to them or mislead them.

Could you imagine a CNN reporter broadcasting an interview in which he went up to John McCain and said, "Sir, when you said xxx about Iraq, I believed you, but then I went and did the research, and I found out that you were incorrect. Not only that, I have evidence that you knew the truth but were deliberately misleading. How do you explain yourself?"

I know it's pretty laughable to imagine what a truly objective, aggressive media would be like, let alone one with a liberal slant, but it's always a dream of mine.

Posted by Observer at January 16, 2008 10:35 AM