David Brooks agrees: Markos is Dr. Mabuse
By turning the feud between The New Republic* and progressive blogs into such a big deal, both sides managed to do one thing-- pave the way for more stereotyping of bloggers by the media. And the ever-hacky David Brooks has led the charge.
"The Keyboard Kingpin, aka Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, sits at his computer, fires up his Web site, Daily Kos, and commands his followers, who come across like squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom on those who stand in the way," writes Brooks. "And in this way the Kingpin has made himself a mighty force in his own mind, and every knee shall bow."
It's nice to see that Brooks has adopted the same name-calling and snide tone that purportedly shows what extremists bloggers are. But what gives with these accusations of Kos as shadowy puppetmaster? I'm honestly not even sure how to address the sheer silliness of them. And comparing a blogger to the likes of actual criminals Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay? That's just sad.
One funny thing about the article is the mention of right-wing site Little Green Footballs, where readers were more than happy to swallow the Kos-as-Svengali line. My favorite example is this:
The Islamic terror suspects arrested yesterday in Miami intended to launch an attack “as good or greater than 9/11:” Indictment: Suspects wanted to 'kill all the devils we can.' The Kos Koordinating Kommittee has handed down the talking point to deal with this setback: Daily Kos: Beyond Iraq.
KKK. Brilliant. And the capture of terrorists is a 'setback' to the left. Uh-huh. Maybe the folks at LGF should spend less time trying to be funny and more time getting their facts straight-- the suspects don't even appear to be Muslim.
In that regard, Brooks is no better. On the NewsHour recently, he attacked Democrats by way of claiming that Iraqis don't want us to leave their country-- long after polling in Iraq showed that the vast majority of citizens (some 80%) want us out in the near future, and as members of Iraq's government began to call on the US to make plans for exiting the country.
*Another problem with Jason Zengerle's initial anti-blog posts at TNR's site is that he now appears to have based his attack on an e-mail provided by three unnamed sources. But the e-mail is apparently a fraud.
"The Keyboard Kingpin, aka Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, sits at his computer, fires up his Web site, Daily Kos, and commands his followers, who come across like squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom on those who stand in the way," writes Brooks. "And in this way the Kingpin has made himself a mighty force in his own mind, and every knee shall bow."
It's nice to see that Brooks has adopted the same name-calling and snide tone that purportedly shows what extremists bloggers are. But what gives with these accusations of Kos as shadowy puppetmaster? I'm honestly not even sure how to address the sheer silliness of them. And comparing a blogger to the likes of actual criminals Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay? That's just sad.
One funny thing about the article is the mention of right-wing site Little Green Footballs, where readers were more than happy to swallow the Kos-as-Svengali line. My favorite example is this:
The Islamic terror suspects arrested yesterday in Miami intended to launch an attack “as good or greater than 9/11:” Indictment: Suspects wanted to 'kill all the devils we can.' The Kos Koordinating Kommittee has handed down the talking point to deal with this setback: Daily Kos: Beyond Iraq.
KKK. Brilliant. And the capture of terrorists is a 'setback' to the left. Uh-huh. Maybe the folks at LGF should spend less time trying to be funny and more time getting their facts straight-- the suspects don't even appear to be Muslim.
In that regard, Brooks is no better. On the NewsHour recently, he attacked Democrats by way of claiming that Iraqis don't want us to leave their country-- long after polling in Iraq showed that the vast majority of citizens (some 80%) want us out in the near future, and as members of Iraq's government began to call on the US to make plans for exiting the country.
*Another problem with Jason Zengerle's initial anti-blog posts at TNR's site is that he now appears to have based his attack on an e-mail provided by three unnamed sources. But the e-mail is apparently a fraud.
posted by Matt Sandwich | 10:43 AM
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