Here are the most popular articles on the Washington Post website early on May 3:
Let's see, four of the headlines include "bin Laden," two include "SEALs," and two are virtually the same: "Osama bin Laden killed in U.S. raid, buried at sea" and "Osama bin Laden buried at sea after being killed by U.S." From this we can surmise that the reading public is presently interested in Osama bin Laden, Navy SEALs, the U.S., and burial at sea, for reasons that need no explication.
On the other hand, there's "Why Glenn Beck lost it," Dana Milbank's April 7th column accusing the fired TV talker of anti-Semitism, or at least of being the kind of person who might someday have an anti-Semitic thought flit through his brain and therefore must be silenced today. It has been near the top of the WaPo's popularity chart for almost four weeks now, while nothing else lasts more than two or three days. Heck, I can barely recall what I wrote a month ago, much less anybody else remembering it. By pundit standards, Milbank has achieved Iliad-level immortality.
So, here's to you, Dana Milbank!
By the way, could there be some other explanation for this phenomenon other than that real live humans are relentlessly pecking away at links to this ancient article like pigeons in a Skinner Box?
On the other hand, there's "Why Glenn Beck lost it," Dana Milbank's April 7th column accusing the fired TV talker of anti-Semitism, or at least of being the kind of person who might someday have an anti-Semitic thought flit through his brain and therefore must be silenced today. It has been near the top of the WaPo's popularity chart for almost four weeks now, while nothing else lasts more than two or three days. Heck, I can barely recall what I wrote a month ago, much less anybody else remembering it. By pundit standards, Milbank has achieved Iliad-level immortality.
So, here's to you, Dana Milbank!
By the way, could there be some other explanation for this phenomenon other than that real live humans are relentlessly pecking away at links to this ancient article like pigeons in a Skinner Box?
Maybe the WAPO got the IDF internet propaganda unit to write some scripts endlessly clicking the Dana Milbank article in order to show whites that anti-semitism is uncool.
ReplyDeleteSay all you want about your local newspaper, but on the whole aren't you glad you don't live on the east coast?
ReplyDeleteYou don't? Really? It's just 'Who, Whom' again, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteNo, the script or Stuxnet type of thing was probably contracted out to some 14-year-olds in Rockville or Bethesda. Then everyone sees it's the #1 hit, clicks it, self-reinforcing, etc.
ReplyDelete"Of course, this is just a television poll which is not legally binding..."
Milbank is Skull and Bones.
ReplyDeleteQuite honestly, I think there is some kind of "hit bombing"(instead of google bombing) PR campaign being waged against Glenn Beck... that Glenn Beck story is the featured story on the sidebar of all yahoo news articles.
ReplyDeleteNavy Seals are cool.
ReplyDeleteMilbank is Skull and Bones.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point of 'Who, Whom', he's Jewish.
Have any of you considered the possibility that it looks like Pakistan was on bin Laden's side because the Obama administration wants a war there?
ReplyDeleteor at least of being the kind of person who might someday have an anti-Semitic thought flit through his brain and therefore must be silenced today.
ReplyDeleteVery similar to why you don't have a more prominent and higher-paying gig, huh?
eh said...
ReplyDeleteMilbank is Skull and Bones.
More to the point of 'Who, Whom', he's Jewish.
Jewish and a member of Skull and Bones? Now all he needs to do is marry into hundreds of millions of dollars and then, like John Kerry, he can join the ranks of the totally powerless and lacking in influence.
I am an anti-Semite obsessed with the Jews.
ReplyDelete- Anonymous White Guy
The late Marxist Paul Piccone explains what's goin' on here:
ReplyDeletehttp://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/piccone_ulmen.htm
(...)
"Trapped within the metaphysical parameters of a unidirectional theory of history that can interpret radical differences only as deviations or pathologies, managerial-liberal thought confronts the 20th and now the 21st century through obsolete, historically-specific categories hypostatized to the level of universality. The result is the homogenization of history and the elimination of particularity. When not dismissing it outright, such a de facto Manichean approach can deal with "the other" only as a variation on the same. Thus, whenever otherness appears, it must either be persuaded back into full sameness or else summarily liquidated as evil. Despite all the rhetoric about openness through "undistorted communication" and interminable dialogue, participation in discussions and deliberations is conditional on the prior acceptance of unchallengeable rules concerning a formal rationality and mode of discourse which automatically exclude all but those intellectuals and professionals fully initiated into the predominant jargon."
(...)
"The same happens with particular political ideologies. Thus, competing systems such as Nazism, fascism and communism--and now even Islamic integralism--are not only systematically misinterpreted, but, like liberalism, also universalized as permanent threats to a managerial liberalism hypostatized as the natural outcome of evolution and, therefore, as normal and natural."
(...)
"Assumed to be the best of all possible systems, the existing managerial framework, run by a New Class elite, legitimates itself as the only bulwark of Western values by opposing all competing alternatives--equally rooted in the Western tradition--as lethal threats to its own interpretation of progress and emancipation. During the Cold War, the de facto permanent state of emergency contributed to the academic institutionalization of this state of affairs, which persists long after both Nazism and fascism (and, after 1989, even communism) have been vanquished. Worse yet, it perpetuates a Jacobin historiography predicated on the primacy of economic, rather than of political parameters, primarily as a straggle between capitalism and the poor, rather than as one between intellectuals and politicians versus ordinary people."
(...)
"On the ideological level, there was a general homogenization of American and European history, which made possible a transposition of European experiences to interpret American realities, and vice-versa. Thus, legitimate political projects concerned with defending traditions and organic social relations, such as those of most branches of American conservatism, were uncritically associated with brutally repressive modernizing ideologies, such as fascism and Nazism, which instrumentalized pseudo-traditions and mythical communities to gain power and legitimacy."
(...)
"This has not been the case within "politically correct," universalist, managerial-liberal perspectives. To the extent that, for managerial-liberal thought, fascism and Nazism remain permanent possibilities whenever capitalist development stalls, any conservative thought is a potential threat not only to "progress" and "emancipation," but also to liberal legal frameworks that allow this "progress" and "emancipation" to take place through democratic means."
(...)
Please note exceptions sometimes made for Israel
I thought Dana Milbank was a chick.
ReplyDeleteJoe Sobran expressed a truth somewhat in this way (a paraphrase for want of accurate memory ):
ReplyDelete"It used to be an anti-Semite was defined as someone who disliked Jews; nowadays, an anti-Semite is defined as someone Jews dislike."
**************
("Seem itism" )
Yuh mean the people who run the media have certain propagandistic memes they wanna push?
ReplyDeleteNah. Conspiracy theory. Go back to sleep. Nothing to see here.
Which one is not like the others?
ReplyDeleteCan we go home now? (Ragheads)
SCAM SCAM SCAM (Ragheads)
War with Pakistan (Ragheads)
Bury the body on Diego Garcia (Ragheads)
Pakistan’s deep state scammed Uncle Sam (Ragheads)
Playing the game of empire (Ragheads)
Afghanistan war request 2012 (Ragheads)
Crazy Talk (Ragheads)
Which one is not like the others? (The Libs!)
You're not really accusing the WP of actually WRITING ON DIFFERNT TOPICS, are you?
ReplyDeleteThere is [at least potentially] a simpler explanation here - rather than the story being kept alive by a horde of tenure-protected Frankfurt School bolshevik nihilists in Team Soros [who couldn't number much more than the tens of thousands], it's much more likely to be millions upon millions of bible-thumping, gun-toting, home-schooling QuiverFull survivalists, in the Glenn Beck audience, who [in their free time, when they aren't busy stocking up on canned goods and kruggerands] are emailing the link to all of their like-minded friends.
ReplyDelete"Occam's Razor said...
ReplyDeleteThere is [at least potentially] a simpler explanation here - rather than the story being kept alive by a horde of tenure-protected Frankfurt School bolshevik nihilists in Team Soros [who couldn't number much more than the tens of thousands], it's much more likely to be millions upon millions of bible-thumping, gun-toting, home-schooling QuiverFull survivalists, in the Glenn Beck audience, who [in their free time, when they aren't busy stocking up on canned goods and kruggerands] are emailing the link to all of their like-minded friends."
Yeah, because they all read the Washington Post religiously. As soon as their done reading Harpers, Slate, and the Utne Reader.
I used to think trollin' and snarkin' were easy. Seeing 'Truth' fail at both every g*damn time makes me see how much intelligence it really takes.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...
ReplyDeleteMs. Ingraham had deep-sixed Frum and Milbank as regular guests years ago. But just last week Dana resurfaced.
Maybe he thought he'd boost her audience pool (continuing the metaphor) against Beck whose show runs opposite.
What's big on the internet is not always big in real life. Recall that the amount of people who actually click links and such is pretty small compared to the universe of those who just passively read, and they tend to be relatively uber-liberal.
ReplyDeleteExample: go to any TV forum, and see the activity/traffic on some cult show, and compare the activity/traffic to a top rated show. A top rated show like say, CSI or Blue Bloods, skewing significantly older but with far more viewers, will have very little activity/traffic compared to that of say, Gossip Girl or Supernatural with minuscule ratings.
Not to mention Village Voice and Mother Jones.
ReplyDeleteSo far SFG and Truth are tied for winning this thread.
ReplyDeleteIf the Jewish Conspiracy has conspired to keep that Beck story on the "most-emailed" list, it must be an example of where Jews bite themselves in the ass with Rube Goldberg-esque thinking. If you wanted to reduce the influence of Beck, wouldn't the way to do that be by not writing about him?
ReplyDeleteStrict Immigration Laws 'Save Denmark Billions'
Utne Reader
ReplyDeleteOkay, I admit that I had to google that one.
I was thinking that maybe it was some sort of a home-schooling curriculum which I hadn't heard of yet.
are emailing the link to all of their like-minded friends.
ReplyDeleteSo all of Glenn Beck's fans are eagerly lapping up an anti-Beck hit-piece? You should change your handle to Occam's plastic spork.
The simplest explanation is that the article's hits are being driven by liberals, the type of people who tend to believe that Fox News is only marginally less evil than al-qaeda.
Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post have raised my consciousness on the issue of the persecution of Jews in the media. Now that the dangerous Glenn Beck has been removed, I find it important to stay on the lookout for other cases of such persecution. Recall that Goldberg told us that Beck had attacked nine people seven of whom were Jews. With that in mind I’ve been extra careful to identify Jews in the news media, to make sure they are not being persecuted.
ReplyDeleteOn Sunday night during the breaking news about Bin Laden, I noted that Fox News had Geraldo on air breaking the news, but he was quickly pushed aside by non-Jews. MSNBC had better luck with Jews David Gregory, Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell all reporting during which I didn’t notice any persecution of Jews. CNN had Jews Wolf Blitzer and John King (a convert to Judaism) reporting and lecturing on the wonderful transformation of the Middle East. I didn’t notice any persecution of Jews on CNN either.
Keeping the ideas of Goldberg and Milbank in mind, we must remain on guard against any media persecution of Jews. Part of this involves identifying who is and who isn’t persecuting Jews and therefore who is and who isn’t Jewish. I invite all to join in keeping track of this issue otherwise the victory over Glenn Beck will have been in vain.
such a de facto Manichean approach
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I was just thinking of this the other day, how the intellectual regime is Manichean.
"Truth," the Reader's Digest Edition:
ReplyDeleteSnarkily-delivered Political Correctness.
The End.
There is [at least potentially] a simpler explanation here - rather than the story being kept alive by a horde of tenure-protected Frankfurt School bolshevik nihilists in Team Soros [who couldn't number much more than the tens of thousands], it's much more likely to be millions upon millions of bible-thumping, gun-toting, home-schooling QuiverFull survivalists, in the Glenn Beck audience, who [in their free time, when they aren't busy stocking up on canned goods and kruggerands] are emailing the link to all of their like-minded friends.
ReplyDeleteDuh. :)
Well, that, and the hordes of grunt-level mainstream (FKA "leftist") teeth-gnashers and sackcloth-renders.
ReplyDelete'They let Jews into Skull and Bones now? Shit, we are doing well."
ReplyDeleteHell, a guy named Eric Liu was also a member of the same Skull and Bones class.
Funny I Follow the News -
ReplyDeleteNice. We need a lot more of that kind of thing - subversive obliviousness. You can present stuff like that with a straight face in a lot of places.
Strict Immigration Laws 'Save Denmark Billions'
ReplyDeleteBut the report has sparked outrage from opposition parties like the centrist Social Liberal Party, which dismissed it as undignified and discriminatory. The party's integration spokeswoman, Marianne Jelved, said: "A certain group of people is being denounced and being blamed for our deficit, being made into whipping boys." She added: "We cannot classify people depending on their value to the economy. That is degrading in a democracy that has a basic value of equality."
Nice Onion-y taste there.
Who-Whom? The Regime is all about Homo Economicus...until it isn't.
"I used to think trollin' and snarkin' were easy. Seeing 'Truth' fail at both every g*damn time makes me see how much intelligence it really takes."
ReplyDeleteDid you really have to replace the 'o' with a little star there, Robbie? I mean, were you afraid a lightning bolt was going to come crashing through the roof and fell you at your computer?
The reason is the Milbank article appeals to 3 distinct audiences (1) Jews and Philo-semites, who love to read anything Jewish (2) People who like Glenn Beck and (3) liberals and "reasonable Republicans" who hate Glenn Beck
ReplyDeleteI think group (1) is the main driver in the WaPo audience. Outside of the Irish, I doubt there's any ethnic group that loves themselves more than the Jews or talks/writes about themselves more.
Of course, there's a lot of overlap in the first and third groups.
Someone up thread made an interesting point about the news media. The Jews have become so powerful they don't even pretend anymore to offer a media that "Looks like America". In ye olden days, the execs and behind the camera folks would be Jewish, but the people on TV would usually be Goys, heartland or WASPY, usually from Nebraska, Texas, or California, with a few Irish Catholics thrown in.
ReplyDeleteThink Cronkite, Severaid, Jennings, Browkow, Russert, Smith and Reasoner. Even PBS had McNeil Leher.
Now, TV news looks like New York City not America.
While on the subject. Presenting the Skull and Bones Class of 2010. Not very waspy anymore. List.
ReplyDeleteAs you imply, Steve, it's being kept in view as a subliminal reminder of the certain fate awaiting all potential thought criminals.
ReplyDelete'Funny I Follow the News' -
ReplyDeleteExcellent satire, very funny, thank you for taking the time to write it all out for us.
Uh, the obvious reason the article appears in that list is that the-powers-that-be at the Washington Post want it to appear there.
ReplyDelete"Uh, the obvious reason the article appears in that list is that the-powers-that-be at the Washington Post want it to appear there."
ReplyDeleteYou don't say? Is that what the editor of a newspaper does decide upon stories that go in?
"Occam's Razor said...
ReplyDeleteUtne Reader
Okay, I admit that I had to google that one.
I was thinking that maybe it was some sort of a home-schooling curriculum which I hadn't heard of yet."
Utne Reader: it's the "Readers Digest" for the kind of people who despise people who read "Readers Digest" - i.e. an abridged anthology for supposedly high-brow people who think that only low-brow people would ever read an abridged anthology. And, yes, those people are entirely devoid of any sense of irony.
[me:]Uh, the obvious reason the article appears in that list is that the-powers-that-be at the Washington Post want it to appear there."
ReplyDelete[Truth:]You don't say? Is that what the editor of a newspaper does decide upon stories that go in?
Is this really worth responding to? The post indicated that they are currently the most popular articles. Various people argued for why the Beck article might actually be popular. I'm saying ... it's not.
My God, is there an end to your silliness, Truth? Milbank's post was written on April 6. That it was (and is) still on the "most read" list a month later is extraordinary, especially in light of Bin Laden's killing.
ReplyDeleteThat's it. I'm done translating Steve's post for you. You can take a dumb troll to the the river...
Hey Tómas, a month ago we were Homies, what gives?!?!?!
ReplyDelete>If you wanted to reduce the influence of Beck, wouldn't the way to do that be by not writing about him?<
ReplyDeleteOnly if he were less than universally famous.
He's prominent, so the best way is to poison the - uh damn, can't say that. Let's say, paint a taint on him.
Those million fans click the link to read about their secular savior...and the story puts a nice plausible layer of slime on him. Mission accomplished.
The way the whole process works is as follows. A "dangerous enemy" burbles along, perhaps known regionally or to a small following. He is deliberately, consciously, rigorously ignored, on principle and by policy. Another "dangerous enemy," not intially identified as such, Trojan Horses it into universal or very wide fame. After a few years of this fame, unable to ignore him any longer, the powers that be run a not-entirely ugly smear piece or two or two hundred on him (getting some financial mileage along the way). Meanwhile they eat away at the idol, unless he cracks or quits at which time they run a live obit: "End of Era: The Sad Career of the SOB". They place that on their front page and leave it right there for months, perhaps longer; perhaps the article even becomes what the trade calls an evergreen. And for years (centuries) afterward, his name is cursed, reviled, and spat upon.