Triumph(s) of the Blogosphere

Presented for your consideration:

This week, CNN News executive Eason Jordan resigned after telling people at a news conference that U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been deliberately targeting reporters. When asked for proof, evidence, or anything at all to back up his claim, he came up with nothing. Now I suspect he's looking at the lecture circuit, where he will be received with accolades at most universities as a martyr of the vast right-wing brownshirt agenda.

This is a triumph of the right-wing blogosphere because the Mainstream Media, of course, didn't really want to report the Eason Jordan story, but bloggers (and talk radio, I assume) kept the story alive long enough in spite of the MSM's blackout.

Also this week, left-wing bloggers brought down that monolith of conservative reporting, Jeff Gannon, prompting Ace to come up with the top ten conservatice reactions to the "story." Ace is proving to be a bit hysterical on the issue, composing elegaic poems in Gannon's honor, and generally brooding over the issue. You can find more on this burning issue, courtesy of Bill from INDC, here and here.

This is a triumph of the left-wing blogosphere, because they apparently think that there's someone out there in the world, other than Jeff Gannon and Ace of Spades, who cares about Jeff Gannon.

The main theme among conservative commentators seems to be this: Jeff Gannon is a nobody, and so nobody cares that he was "brought down," although it is somewhat ironic that Leftists have been crowing about outing Gannon as a homosexual (a decidedly curious thing to crow about, unless you think there's something wrong with homosexuality, which the Left ostensibly does not). But Eason Jordan is a somebody, and his head goes on the trophy wall right next to Dan Rather, and therefore conservatives rule and lefties are big doody-heads.

The one thing I have not seen discussed anywhere, and yet it immediately struck me as the most important part of the Gannon story, is the serious breach of protocol in Gannon's choice of pseudonyms. You see, Gannon is the villain in the old Legend of Zelda video games - the archetypal bad guy. It would be like picking Vader, or Lucifer, or "The Red Guy from Tron" as your last name. As all conservatives and muck-raking liberals know, conservatives are pure evil. But for goodness' sakes, we aren't supposed to be that obvious! Bush may be Hitler, but that doesn't mean conservatives are supposed to give away the whole plot! Who does this Jeff Gannon think he is, tipping the conservative hand like that?

All of which makes me think he's really a liberal plant, pretending to be a conservative. He probably thought, "when I get burned, I'd better have a really sinister-sounding last name. Who was that pig-looking guy at the end of Zelda?"