Is the blogosphere being petty?

Reader Chris Charla thinks that conservative bloggers lack perspective when it comes to the Eason Jordan story. He writes:

I think the collective blog universe needs to take a step back and ask if the Jordan story isn’t getting play because a) the MSM is protecting its own or b) it’s just a tempest in a tea-pot.
Look, I think Jordan is a massive tool (see his comments on CNN and Iraq), but a hastily backtracked misstatement made in a situation where he was trying to “act big” (as we use to call it in elementary school) for some VIPs simply fails to rise to the level of Rathergate.
Bottom line: just because the blogs grab onto something like a dog, and just because the MSM ignores the same story, doesn’t mean you’ve found the next whatever-gate of our time.
I think endless focusing on this fairly small issue makes the blogs look petty, and not just to the MSM.

It is certainly easy for bloggers to lose perspective, so Mr. Charla’s comments are welcome. However, I find it difficult to accept his characterization that the Jordan story is a “tempest in a teapot.” If the U.S. military were targeting journalists for death, it would be the story of the decade (Abu Ghraib to the 100th power). Accordingly, doesn’t a false claim that the military is doing this, made by the head of the world-wide leader in news reporting, constitute a reportable story? Jordan apparently back-tracked to some extent. But he still seems to be insisting that the military intentionally killed journalists. Thus, his restatement is paragraph two of the story, not the story’s negation. Moreover, the MSM should be trying to find out exactly how far Jordan backed off, not pretending that the whole thing never happened.
But even if I’m wrong about all of this, I don’t think it can legitimately be disputed that if a conservative had made a statement of comparable significance (or insignificance, as Charla would have it) the MSM would have reported it immediately and would be discussing it ad nauseam. And certainly it would be no defense to say that the conservative in question was just trying to “act big.” So in trying to push this story into the public’s consciousness, conservative bloggers aren’t being petty. They are merely applying MSM standards in quest, among other things, of a level playing field.

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