Biggest Story of 2009: The Rise of the Virtual Newsroom
by PubliusFrom the American Spectator:
It was the biggest story of 2009.
If you doubt, ask ACORN. Or Van Jones. Or the So We Might See campaign. You won’t need Timemagazine’s once clout-filled “Man of the Year” issue to figure it out, either. Just take a look back at the bestseller lists, the ratings of Fox News or simply turn on your local AM radio dial.
The single most important news event of 2009 was the emergence of The Virtual Newsroom. A newsroom run by a virtual army of conservative journalists famous and unknown, their individual and collective impact multiplied exponentially by millions of Internet users, radio listeners, readers and television viewers.
How did this happen? How does it work in practice?
First, perspective is needed here. Like other big news events, it didn’t happen overnight. There is history, lots of it.
The entire article is worth a read. But, here is a particularly fun excerpt:
Story One: Here you have two young conservative journalists, O’Keefe and Giles, possessed of a keen philosophical eye, a knowledge of technology (cameras, microphones videotape, the Internet) and a fat and inviting liberal fish in a barrel known as ACORN. Imagination conjured as to how they will approach their story — they go out and conduct their very-old style journalism investigation. Story in hand, Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.tv in the Internet division takes the handoff. He sends a virtual memo to talk radio row’s Beck and Hannity. Who in turn are both Fox News stars. Five…four…three…two…one. Bang! Within a virtual instant, the Virtual Newsroom has just blown in the hull of the good ship ACORN, its stunned survivors racing around the deck of a political Titanic as Breitbart, O’Keefe and Giles are powered by the engines of the Virtual Newsroom. The full power of the Virtual Newsroom kicks in. Talk radio shows light up the call screeners screens. The newspaper and magazines kick in, in print and online. The lights are on in the Fox studios as the surging Fox audience gapes at a federally funded organization strategizing on prostitution. And…lights out for ACORN. Or more accurately, considerably damaged and suddenly congressionally unfunded. And the coverage from what’s left of the liberal mainstream media in all this? Next to zero.
Read the whole article here.
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68 Comments
NOW you know why the Obama administration wants to control the internet SO badly….
You've got Andy Breitbart to blame.
God bless the little rascal…
Thank heavens.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Tweeting, Lonnie Spivak. Lonnie Spivak said: Biggest Story of 2009: The Rise of the Virtual Newsroom http://is.gd/59uzn [...]
Well done Breitbart! Giving the left hell! What fun it is to watch liberals scurry about screaming foul!
SO…. Breitbart is a Mac guy….
Nothing like the ultimate end-run to let the MSM know and feel just how unnecessary they have chosen to become.
There is no further need to complain about the MSM's bias or lack of coverage. From here on out, assume the vast "we" of the Internet are the Voice of America, the watchdog watching the self-proclaimed watch dogs. Let the dead bury the dead.
So I guess biased media ISN'T a bad thing? Divide and conquer media isn't journalism. It's polarizing and specifically designed to deceive people of truth under the illusion of patronizing ideology both on the Left and the Right. It's propaganda, pure and simple. It worked for Hitler in shaping and patronizing ideology against Jews and Europe and it's allies. It worked for Stalin, Lenin and the Soviet Union in shaping and patronizing ideology against America.
What fool would believe the DailyKos is objective? What fool would watch Keith Olbermann and believe he is objective? What fool would tune into Air America and believe it's objective? The same fools that would read the article from the American Spectator and feel comforted in knowing that biased media on any side is serving a public good. The difference between ignorance and stupidity is ignorance is CHOOSING to be stupid.
Want pacification? Seek your Mommy! Want the truth? Use your minds!
The other part of this story is how the relic media circled the wagons to protect both ACORN and their lack of attention to the story. They didn't know what hit them.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by johnnyA99: Biggest Story of 2009: The Rise of the Virtual Newsroom http://bit.ly/4sfEpG via @biggovt…
The key in all of this is that stories that never got told are, for the first time, not just getting out to conservatives, but are now forcing the old media to admit they are stories and cover them. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube . . . .
The full article was awesome! Also, it was a great timetable of current events. Having watched it all unfold, and also watching the main stream media for "related" stories, I can tell you, that the most comprehensive coverage of the issues I am most concerned about are on talk radio and the web.
The next story to watch is the "global warming" debacle. Only talk radio and the web has been all over it, albeit, one "story" from the AP. The only "settled science" that comes close to approximating the man-made global warming scam is eugenics. A boring subject, really… But, if you don't want to do the research, just read "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. You will learn all you ever did not want to know.
As an aside, I grew up reading Michael Crichton. When I was in the eight grade we read "The Andromeda Strain". What I did not know at the time, what I did not know until Michael Crichton died was that he wrote "The Andromeda Strain" while attending medical school! Michael Crichton predicted the death of print media long ago (see his website.) Michael Crichton testified before Congress – on several matters – something Stephen King (a former favorite author of mine) never did.
I have come to understand that it is easy to go with the flow, to follow the masses. I also learned a long time ago, that "bucking the system" was a synonym for "going against the flow". The current system is the flow. The current system is the "anti-system". The current system is the antithesis of every foundation our government was founded on. The current system is anti-capitalistic.
There are lies, upon lies in the current system. The number one lie is that personal exceptionalism is unimportant. The rest of the lies are dependent on this first lie. For if nothing one does is important, then nothing one does can make a difference.
I propose the following hypothesis – are you more or less inclined to put in the extra effort, to go above and beyond the call of duty in your field of expertise if the fruits of your labor are relegated to just yourself, or are you more inclined to go above and beyond the call of duty if the rewards of your efforts are afforded equally to all in your firm?
syntax,
It sure seems that folks like you are now threatened because the American people are actually being advised by more than one reliable source. Your friends at the MSM are losing credibility daily. Think the ratings speak for themselves.
Thank God for Breitbart, Drudge, Fox and all of the other New Media. The big MSM-Denial scoops are really stacking up; Dan Rather-Gate; ACORN-Gate; Van Jones-Gate; Global Warming-Gate; Gladney Beatdown-Gate; MSM Denial-Gate. There are, and will be plenty more. I love to watch them all going down the drain. They're melting… (que Wicked Witch melting scene)
Thank you Andrew Bretibart, and Mike Flynn, burn their houses down. They are nothing but houses of ill repute.
Off topic, but I think important: David Horowitz has set up an "Impeach Eric Holder" legal movement and fund. I just donated a modest amount, and urge everyone who can to do likewise. Donors of $25 or more will receive a copy of "Obama's Rules for Radicals" (if I'm correctly remembering the title, likely a take-off of "Alinsky's…." but updated to include current applications). Check for details at http://www.frontpagemag.com
"It worked for Hitler in shaping and patronizing ideology against Jews and Europe and it's allies"
I hear ya. Obama and crew tried that" patronizing ideology" against Fox News, Rush, Hannity and O'Reilly.
Didn't work out the way he planned.
I haven't read the article yet, but YEA FOR BREITBART!!!! We are ready for that book!
The virtual newsroom via sites such as this has become essential to anyone that understands that the MSM can't be trusted to report the real facts.
[...] from Big Government [...]
Global whining smack-down in Australia: HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Australia's Parliament voted down legislation Wednesday to set up a greenhouse-gas emission trading system, according to reports.
Lawmakers in the upper house voted 41 to 33 against the plan, which had targeted a 5% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 from levels benchmarked against turn-of-the-century levels.
The defeat was widely viewed as a political setback for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose government does not hold a majority in the in the Senate, and who will now head to U.N. summit in Copenhagen this month for climate talks without a showcase domestic emissions trading program.
Andrew Breitbart is my hero. period.
I gave up looking for unbiased journalism shortly after I found Santa sipping spiked eggnogs with my Mom. I will read the right and left if I can find real journalism there. Am I biased YES I love my country I consider it a model of human decency and tolerance. Is it perfect hell no we kill to many babies and not enough criminals. Does that make me a right wing conservative nut job? NO. For the most part on the left, the noble goals of liberalism (I honestly remember there being some when I was a kid) have been turned into guilt trips and hatemongering. The desire to have a government that serves the needs of the people has turned much of the left into sheeple that serve the needs of their government. What Mark Levin has eloquently describes as soft Tyranny. Breitbart’s writers are often opinionated but they do not pretend to be anything else. They deliver news from a perspective (one I largely share), but they deliver news. Stories are well written and heavily cited. Articles are often first person. , certainly, these source stories are written from the perspective of that individual. Nevertheless, autobiographical writing is not bias.
Read Michael Volpe excellent series of interview with Wade Rathke unbiased pure journalism. (Frustrating for me because of the depth of my hatred for Mr. Rathke) He gives us a window into the thinking and driving force of a political svengali. Go to Media Matters and read the drivel there they claim to be unbiased and they spin circular logics that no man can possibly fathom. Their entire format seems to be that of the propagandist telling the big lie ad nauseam until it becomes background music in the subconscious. Check the twisting of the facts at Mother Jones to fit there agenda. There writing isn’t first person or cited sources it is simple ideological tracts disguised as reporting. The examples are endless. I choose to start here in my search for truth and then I will chase the sources. FREE YOUR MIND
I send everyone I meet here for the otherside of the story they are always amazed at the quality of the writting and the sources
In all fairness to the MSM their job is much harder. Hiding the truth requires a lot more creativity then reporting it
Nice job Andrew………………………..now go buy yourself a comb.
It's a new world order all-right. Just not the one liberal socialists had in mind.
As I said before, the Internet was originally created to protect America from a communist socialist threat. It's working!
Awesome. This gives me great hope.
You write: The single most important news event of 2009 was the emergence of The Virtual Newsroom. A newsroom run by a virtual army of conservative journalists famous and unknown, their individual and collective impact multiplied exponentially by millions of Internet users, radio listeners, readers and television viewers. End of quote.
I agree, and I speak from Europe. Because of biggovernment.com and other bloggers, and the fact that you get exposure on Fox, means it is hope for America. For main stream media is totally corrupt, it has amazed me to see how they American media rally around the Marxists that took over the White House. No shame, thats the amazement.
In Europe we have no real outlets like that, we have a few blogs, but the public is so seduced that they have a hard time. This web site was started by a heretic journalist, http://www.document.no/
and last evening they put out an announcement that they will arrange a meeting with their readers to brainstorm, how to increase their numbers of hits.¨ I really sympatice with them, they do tell a different story and their readers I will consider libertarian/ conservative – like myself. Still they cannot make much of an impact, and here is why:
This is really a warning to Americans, for I see signs. The liberals took over kindergartens and public schools, and brain washed kids. I noticed this decades ago. I had lived outside my country, and I would meet kids of former friends (then students), and they told their views almost like a matter of fact, as I remember them from the lying/ SOBs Marxists, when I was a student late 60ties early 70ties. Its endemic over here, and guess what Obama is a super star. So maybe America can be saved, but you must get kids away from these communists. Start exposing what they are teaching them " school today." Fox have actually had some horror stories.
Since Andrew has laid the foundation…MAYBE OUR COUNTRY WILL RETURN TO "WE THE PEOPLE"!!!
Wow, really appreciate your comments. Thank you.
Thanks Andrew. Your work has just begun. So much corruption, so little time.
Being able to write on sites like this is one of the things that makes this country great. Andrew Breitbart you are a true patriot and defender of our rights…thank you!
Now this is "the change" I can believe in ! Breitbart, I hope someday you put the lame media out of their misery – and build the new news order !
Just think, if Algore hadn't invented the internet, we would still be in the dark.
Keep up the great work, SPANKY ! Don't let ALFALFA get to you….
Keep going. It is so much fun watching these thugs being exposed everyday. You are terrific Andrew!
[...] 3946619 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/2009/12/01/biggest-story-of-2009-the-rise-of-the-virtual-newsroom/Biggest+Story+of+20093A39%3A09Publius. dcase – December 2nd, 2009 at 1:47 am … <more> [...]
I am so greatful to have a news outlet like this, plus our many comments from fellow citizens.
That will really goose them at Apple.
And at the head of this "virtual" revolution, Rush Limbaugh. All of us that believe in America, her Constitution, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness endowed by our Creator, can' thank him enough!
God Bless you Andrew. My hope is to see my old U.S. of A again before I leave this earth.
you choose your heroes well…
or Buckwheat for that matter…
Nobody's perfect…
Amen Andrea!
Hurts when your losing, don't it?
Brevity, brevity, brevity…
Very simple: When you work for yourself, you do both more and better. When you work for yourself and someone else, you do as much as you have to. When you work for everyone else, you do as little as you can get away with…
Their already partly "goosed" anyway. Rush is Mac head too.
Andrew Bretibart is the MacGyver/Lieutenant Columbo of "The Virtual Newsroom ".
Googbye MSM
Hello TVN
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5B14H320091202?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Did your MSM cover the SEIU thugs attacking Gladney? Did your MSM media cover the SEIU thugs kicking people out of a town hall meeting because of opposing views? Lack of MSM coverage of SEIU, lack of investigation into ACORN… all makes me think of how they, and the administration, relate to Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Soviet Union…
Unlike on the left, we on the right generally talk the talk. We crowed over excessive spending by Bush, berated Hannity for the 9/12 footage mistake, and lambast Huckabee for his clemency. Andrew's writers talk the talk, too. Whereas the left embraces the Rangel's and coddles the Geithner's. We don't. Your point is invalid, but, the effort is acknowledged.
Oops, meant to be in reply to Syntax.
Well in this case, it's a plus point for Breitbart.
Though I can't really claim being a Mac girl as I actually do Windows and Linux too. Oh well.
He must have really goosed them, I've never seen a lib pass up a revenue stream.
First of all, it isn't MY MSM!!! I spend very little time watching corporate run media such as Fox News and MSNBC. Divide and Conquer media designed solely for the purpose of selling more Toyotas or getting dimwits to invest in gold.
Did the precious media cover Gladney? No! Why? It's a simple freakin' assault case. Who cares. I've been assaulted 100 times worse than Gladney at a college bar and guess what…the MSM wasn't there to cover it. Boo hoo for me! Call the MSM WAAAAAHHHHHH-bulance for me!
Well they're not losing as bad as they did in 2006 and 2008. I disagree with your analogy Mjolnir, I believe they can gain a few seats back in 2010 but it will take years for them to gain back their horrible losses from 2006 and 2008. The Republicans have a cancer that care more about ACORN Derangement Syndrome than winning back the massive amounts of voters they lost the past 2 election cycles. Now they have a purity test that a majority of Republicans that are left would fail or have failed miserably so it should be an interesting year.
I do enjoy reading Andrew's writers and this website is insightful but a Right-wing "Keith Olbermann" has no more credible objectivity than the Left-wing "Keith Olbermann". Biased media is biased media and an intelligent person should know the difference.
If you believe opinion pieces are reliable than son, you're not a threat to anybody.
I don't have a fondness for corporate media or what you refer to as MSM. Divide and conquer media designed to sell more toyotas or convince dimwits to buy gold. I find that local papers and local TV station websites tell a more honest story of the actual truth. I shall give you an example…I've seen on this website and many like it a story of how ACORN / Workers Family Party Guilty of Absentee Ballot Fraud in Troy, NY. Now you have 2 parts of a truth: Workers Family Party and Absentee Ballot Fraud tied together with a complete fabrication "Guilty" which is the text book definition of propaganda. The Workers Family Party in Troy, NY weren't the perpetrators of the Absentee Ballot Fraud, they were the victims of it. The MSM failed horribly at pointing out these so-called "reliable" sources you refer to were bald-faced liars on the subject. You naturally are OK with that since your interpretation of "reliable" is based more upon your ideology than your morality.
On September 15th, 2009…Fox News spent the entire day broadcasting as gospel how the San Bernadino ACORN worker murdered her husband without having the journalistic integrity to commit one single second of fact checking or verifying if that claim had merit. It did not. Want another example how the MSM failed? This website posted an ACORN video of a visit to the San Diego ACORN office. It was such a juicy tape to. Here's a problem, that ACORN worker reported Giles and O'Keefe to the police and the National City PD confirmed this. The information was given to a detective with the National City PD and then forwarded to another investigator who works on a human trafficking task force. The only thing the MSM did was offer up a tiny 2 paragraph story verifying this that no MSM outlet ran with. This website still promotes that video as a "smoking gun" without having any level of journalistic integrity to correct the perception under which it promotes it and the MSM refuse to hold them accountable for their obvious propaganda. I agree…why haven't they talked about it?
Here is a study of how the MSM has been a lot more of a Right-wing echo chamber than most people would appreciate. They may not be on a with hunt against ACORN as you would love them to be but they're failing miserably at pointing out the political agenda and motivations (and countless proven caught on tape lies) of this ACORN with hunt objectively:
http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/acornstudy/
Syntax, there are days when I wonder if you even pay attention to what's going on…
Its exactly those things that are destroying the Democrats chances…
But hey, if that's what you believe, GOOD LUCK with that…the statists are playing right into our hands…
MUAHAHAHAHAHA…!
Dad,
I would believe an opinion piece written by Homer Simpson before I would take stock in any one of the MSM's articles, editorials or op-eds.
Since you have such a fondness for the MSM, how bout giving them a call and ask them if they are aware that ACORN and SEIU have been caught doing some very wrong things. Ask them if they are aware of this thing being called ClimateGate. Tell them that your friends at Big Government asked you why they haven't talked about it.
PS, If you hang around here long enough, you will be able to stay abreast of "NEWS". I live in Thailand and I manage to stay abreast…..and we don't have FOX News in my area. How bout that?
Signed, your 20 year military vet that's no threat.
Statistics? Like NY-23?
This goes beyond statistics and has become a full-blown trend:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/03/andrew-s...
[...] Big Government » Blog Archive » Biggest Story of 2009: The Rise of … [...]
Yes Thank God For The Internet and TRUE New Journalist such as Breitbart, O’Keefe and Giles. Truley Poetic Justice! For those interested in learning the Constitution please check out http://www.AmericanCitizens.org They have FREE Video training classes on the Constitution. You can also read or listen to the reading of the Constitution or download to your MP3 player. Check out the very funny video titled.. Is This You? of Barney Fife trying to recite the Preamble to the Constitution. Extremely funny but a serious message that needs to be spread! Please help spread it! SEMPER FI!
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