Blogosphere

Blogger in the news (again)

Charles Johnson of the Los Angeles-based war blog Little Green Footballs and co-founder of Pajamas Media got most of the praise due the blogosphere for uncovering the fake documents about President Bush's National Guard service used to dupe Dan Rather and CBS News. He did it again in the recent flap over a Reuters photographer who had been altering photos by computer to make them more visual. Johnson is the subject of pieces today in the Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor. From the WashPost:

Little Green Football's "Reutersgate" and "Rathergate" scalps share a key characteristic: They stem from Johnson's skepticism of, if not outright hostility toward, the mainstream news media (or as some Little Green Football visitors like to refer to them when they post comments, "the lamestream media").

In Johnson's view, the news media haven't adequately sounded the alarm about threats to Western societies posed by radical Islamic groups -- something he says he seeks to redress through his politically conservative blog.

"My main take is that political correctness has kept a lot of the hard truth from being spread by the mainstream media," says Johnson, 53, a professional musician in Los Angeles who spends most of his time maintaining his blog.

The Monitor piece delves more into the widespread criticism that LGF is less about politics and the war on terrorism than about anti-Muslim hate, especially in the comments. They are notoriously xenophobic and not exactly a bastion of reason or intelligence — the kind of forum where journalists are casually called enemies of the United States.


More by Kevin Roderick:
Standing up to Harvey Weinstein
The Media
LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions
LA Observed Notes: Harvey Weinstein stripped bare
LA Observed Notes: Photos of the homeless, photos that found homes
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Andrew Sullivan to give up blogging (and get a life)


 

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