Bloggers Put Downing Street Memos on National Agenda
The Wall Street Journal reports that bloggers have played a pivotal role in making the now famous Downing Street memos a national issue.
"In mid-May," the Journal reports, "three regular readers of Daily Kos, a liberal blog, published their own Web site to publicize the documents. According to its operators, Downingstreetmemo.com was created by a Silicon Valley Web-page designer, a Chicago college student and a Canadian citizen certain they had stumbled onto the smoking gun that could drag the Bush administration down."
"They were joined later by three other Daily Kos readers, including Bob Fesmire, husband of the Silicon Valley Web designer. Mr. Fesmire, a marketing executive for an engineering business, said he returned from a business trip to find his wife, Gina, obsessed with the leaked British documents, so he read them."
"I said, 'This is it -- this is what's going to crack this whole thing open,' " Mr. Fesmire recalled. He was equally struck by the lack of interest in the documents, even among liberals."
"The idea to target news operations came from Michael Clark, a Pennsylvania professor of ancient history and occasional poster to DailyKos who didn't know the Fesmires before joining the effort. Mr. Clark said he knew nothing about running such a campaign but decided to contact three media outlets a day, including the likes of C-Span, the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal."
The Journal report comes on the day that President George Bush will give a prime time speech seeking to rally the nation in the face of plummeting public support for the war in Iraq.
As described the the Journal, "The documents, summarizing meetings between U.S. and British officials in the spring and summer of 2002, appear to lend support to what administration critics have long alleged: That the White House was determined to invade Iraq nearly a year before it did and that it "fixed" intelligence to justify the invasion. In many ways, though, the documents don't reflect much new; at the time they were produced, U.S. news outlets were speculating that Mr. Bush might be heading toward conflict in Iraq, which is why they garnered little attention here when reported earlier."
"Still, the memos have galvanized left-leaning activists in the U.S., with some even saying the matter justifies impeachment proceedings against Mr. Bush for lying to Congress."
The Journal makes the point well, albeit indirectly. What was speculation in the news media in 2002 - that damn the facts, Bush was bent on war with Iraq was, well just that: speculation. The Downing Street documents show that Bush was faking seeking peaceful, diplomatic solutions. It took tremendous efforts to force the news media to pay attention -- and bloggers were a catyalyst for making it an issue. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) became a regular on The Daily Kos, posting updates and asking for help in his efforts to get what became known as the DSM the attention he felt they deserved.
The Washington Post has also done a 180 degree turn about in thier coverage of the DSM. In recent weeks the editorial page pooh poohed the significance of the story, and added insult to injury by running a sneering piece on informal hearings staged by Rep.Conyers. Today, the paper is running an excellent front page story on the matter.
Great work bloggers!
"In mid-May," the Journal reports, "three regular readers of Daily Kos, a liberal blog, published their own Web site to publicize the documents. According to its operators, Downingstreetmemo.com was created by a Silicon Valley Web-page designer, a Chicago college student and a Canadian citizen certain they had stumbled onto the smoking gun that could drag the Bush administration down."
"They were joined later by three other Daily Kos readers, including Bob Fesmire, husband of the Silicon Valley Web designer. Mr. Fesmire, a marketing executive for an engineering business, said he returned from a business trip to find his wife, Gina, obsessed with the leaked British documents, so he read them."
"I said, 'This is it -- this is what's going to crack this whole thing open,' " Mr. Fesmire recalled. He was equally struck by the lack of interest in the documents, even among liberals."
"The idea to target news operations came from Michael Clark, a Pennsylvania professor of ancient history and occasional poster to DailyKos who didn't know the Fesmires before joining the effort. Mr. Clark said he knew nothing about running such a campaign but decided to contact three media outlets a day, including the likes of C-Span, the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal."
The Journal report comes on the day that President George Bush will give a prime time speech seeking to rally the nation in the face of plummeting public support for the war in Iraq.
As described the the Journal, "The documents, summarizing meetings between U.S. and British officials in the spring and summer of 2002, appear to lend support to what administration critics have long alleged: That the White House was determined to invade Iraq nearly a year before it did and that it "fixed" intelligence to justify the invasion. In many ways, though, the documents don't reflect much new; at the time they were produced, U.S. news outlets were speculating that Mr. Bush might be heading toward conflict in Iraq, which is why they garnered little attention here when reported earlier."
"Still, the memos have galvanized left-leaning activists in the U.S., with some even saying the matter justifies impeachment proceedings against Mr. Bush for lying to Congress."
The Journal makes the point well, albeit indirectly. What was speculation in the news media in 2002 - that damn the facts, Bush was bent on war with Iraq was, well just that: speculation. The Downing Street documents show that Bush was faking seeking peaceful, diplomatic solutions. It took tremendous efforts to force the news media to pay attention -- and bloggers were a catyalyst for making it an issue. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) became a regular on The Daily Kos, posting updates and asking for help in his efforts to get what became known as the DSM the attention he felt they deserved.
The Washington Post has also done a 180 degree turn about in thier coverage of the DSM. In recent weeks the editorial page pooh poohed the significance of the story, and added insult to injury by running a sneering piece on informal hearings staged by Rep.Conyers. Today, the paper is running an excellent front page story on the matter.
Great work bloggers!
posted by Frederick Clarkson at 12:25 AM
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