Newsbites and viewsbites and the power of crowd-sourced journalism

Like Tiny twisting and shifting her ears in all directions for environmental clues, we spent much of the day hanging around what Jordan Raynor calls the "Citizen-Powered News Bureau," turning our mind's ear to manageable portions of the 24/7 rush of 140-or-fewer-character newsbites and viewsbites from citizen journalists we're following on Twitter. Like a teaser headine, a well-written tweet invites us to follow the writer's Tiny URL links to larger worlds beyond. Writes Raynor: "News consumers are trusting crowd-sourced journalism to provide them with the news they want because they believe in the idea of a truly free-market journalism system where trusted news sources rise to the top naturally."

"You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you're running for the presidency," Charles Krauthammer told Megyn Kelly — first woman ever to sub as host of Fox News's flagship "Special Report with Brit Baier" — last night. We cringed at the condescension towards Sarah Palin as we grumbled to the television that oh, yes you can sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés, indefinitely, if your name is Barack Obama and big media is in the tank for you. Most annoying of all, our beloved Krauthammer agreed with liberal co-panelist Mara Liasson:

Now, as to Palin, I agree entirely with what Mara said. She is — she has star power without any doubt. She has an extremely devoted following. But she is not a serious candidate for the presidency.

She had to go home and study and spend a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year, and she hasn't. She has to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes. It won't work.

And how, pray tell, do Charles and Mara know what Sarah has or hasn't been doing beyond official duties since November? You can bet they don't follow AKGovSarahzPalin on Twitter, a great way to keep up with her schedule and priorities [Can't be sure whether she or a staffer does the actual twittering, but like Palin herself, her tweets have an authentic ring about them.] If Krauthammer and Liasson know something, let's have the details. We'd heard rumors just after the election that among other things the Alaska Governor was being mentored on foreign relations and government waste by Republican heavyweight Fred Thompson. As for those Northeast Corridor Republican fuddy-duddies who look down their noses at the hayseed caricature relentlessly spun by a biased, elitist media, we offer this insight from the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," as quoted by Daniel Henninger during the last weeks of the fall campaign:

Lorne Michaels lives on the forward wave of American life. This week he gave his view of Sarah Palin to EW.com: "I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she's powerful. Her politics aren't my politics. But you can see that she's a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she's had a huge impact. People connect to her."

But not Charles Krauthammer and fellow members of the fuddy-duddy community. As we wrote in our very first Palin post "It's a girl?" late August last year, "Charles Krauthammer on Fox is saying McCain should pick someone 'safe' like Fred Thompson [Ironic, huh? –ed]. We LOVE Fred, of course, and our sis will remind us that we have a heart too soon made glad, but the Governor of Alaska gets our girls-just-wanna-have-fun juices flowing. Sarah, get your gun!" We're reminded of something Dr. Krauthammer said just the other day about President Obama's poor judgment in siding with the would-be dictator of Honduras:

Look, a rule of thumb here is whenever you find yourself on the side of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and the Castro twins, you ought to re-examine your assumptions.

To you, sir, we would add our own rule of thumb:

Whenever you find yourself on the side of Mara Liasson, you ought to re-examine your assumptions.

And look. Please try to avoid using that toe-curling Liassonism, "Look," at the start of every declarative sentence.

Update: Look, all animals, all the time at Modulator's Friday Ark #250.

Comments

[jordan raynor]

Thanks for the citation!

[Stoutcat]

It's his old-school liberal roots showing, I guess. Sure wish he'd phrased it a bit differently: "I'd hope she's home studying and spending a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year... She has to learn to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes so much. It works for her, but not everyone connects with it."

That would have been a more appropriate, not to mention fairer, statement.

[goomp]

Maybe Charlie is infatuated with Mara.

[Ruth Anne]

That Liasson "look" is a good clue that she's a visual learner. People who are more auditorily inclined use "listen" as a word whisker.