Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate
By JOHN SCHWARTZ

Published: January 3, 2005

As the horror of the South Asian tsunami spread and people gathered online to discuss the disaster on sites known as Web logs, or blogs, those of a political bent naturally turned the discussion to their favorite topics.

To some in the blogosphere, it simply had to be the government's fault.

On Democratic Underground, a blog IT IS NOT A BLOG, it's a dicussion board.  No wonder no one trusts the NY Times for open discussion and an online gathering place for people who hate the Bush administration (www.democraticunderground.com), a participant asked, "Since we know that the atmosphere has become contaminated by all the atomic testing, space stuff, electronic stuff, earth pollutants, etc., is it logical to wonder if: Perhaps the 'bones' of our earth where this earthquake spawned have also been affected?"

The cause of the earthquake and resulting killer wave, the writer said, could be the war in Iraq. "You know, we've exploded many millions of tons of ordnance upon this poor planet," the writer said. "All that 'shock and awe' stuff we've just dumped onto the Asian part of this earth - could we have fractured something? Perhaps the earth was just reacting to something that man has done to injure it. The earth is organic, you know. It can be hurt."

The ridicule began immediately. Online insults, referred to colloquially as flames, rose high on other sites.

"What would life be without D.U.?" asked an editor at Wizbang, a politically conservative blog (www.wizbangblog.com), using the initials of Democratic Underground.

"Get out the tin foil hats," a contributor to the blog wrote.

www.nytimes.com/2005/01/03/international/worldspecial4/03bloggers.html?pagewanted=1&oref=login

This article annoys me, because it's attempting to smear blogs, the fact-checkers of old media outlets like the NY Times who don't seem interested in doing such quaint practices anymore, by lumping the leftist lunatics at the DU asylum in with them.

But, on the other hand,  this has got to hurt and embarrass the DUer's.  I mean, the NY Times, home to Paul Krugman, is dissing them.

lol, thats a good one, I knew it was bushes fault!

almost makes me want to post a bunch of dumb stuff over there to make libs look even dumber.

You know you're a member of the whacko fringe when the New York Times questions your credibility.

Anybody know how DU is taking the betrayal?

I don't have membership so I can only read the portion quoted. I note that the article does not directly attack the "Bush did it" theory but only points out ridicule from others...avoiding taking a stand on whether either position is justifiable.

To me, this looks like free press advancing the idea that mother earth or Gaia is striking back at us because of G.W.'s unholy assault on mother nature.

eta: also of note is that a more extensive quote is taken from the DUer and less space dedicated to the ridicule...of course, I do not have access to the whole article so it's all out of context for me.

Quoted: Anybody know how DU is taking the betrayal?

Hopefully they're lining up on the doorsteps of the NY Times to kill themselves in protest.

Dg84

Yep. A 5 ton bomb dropped by the military under President Bush's orders caused the earthquake and resulting tsunami.  It really is Bush's fault.

It's fun to watch them eat their own.

Quoted: Yep. A 5 ton bomb dropped by the military under President Bush's orders caused the earthquake and resulting tsunami.  It really is Bush's fault.

I was playing Counterstrike last night and some fruitloop said he believed the earthquake was caused by an atomic bomb that the US detonated so that those asian nations would be heavily damaged.  I told him it was a GREAT theory.  

+1

oh boy....tag

Actually, what the NYT and mainstream media in general are doing is trying to discredit "blogs" in general.   That's why they called "DU" a blog, even though its a message board.   The main stream media had their asses handed to them by web logs this year, especially conservative blogs that fact checked their asses nine ways from Sunday.  They're now on the counterattack, and the meme they'll be trying to propagate is that "blogs" are a bunch of cranks like on DU.   Guilt by association, defamation by categorization.

Quoted: Quoted: Anybody know how DU is taking the betrayal? Hopefully they're lining up on the doorsteps of the NY Times to kill themselves in protest. Dg84

No, they're saying this proves that the NY Times isn't liberal, just like they've always said.

I guess nobody told DU about all the tannerite huh?

Ben

Quoted: It's fun to watch them eat their own.

It is fun to watch them destroy themselves

Dipshits. I took the .com off because I don't know how to post a link without making it hot. It's about the article.


http://www.democraticunderground/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1116859&mesg_id=1116859

Ouch. That's like High Times taking a swing at dirty hippies.

the hits just keep on coming

Quoted: Anybody know how DU is taking the betrayal?

The same way any decent tinfoil-hatter would take it:

EXPAND THE CONSPIRACY!!!

Someone needs to compile a list of songs that remind us of DU.

Here are my contributions:

White Rabbit- Jefferson Airplane
Fairies Wear Boots- Black Sabbath
The Sound Of Silence- Simon and Garfunkel
F*** DU- The ARFCOM Band (also note the popular title song for their latest album, Did He Shoot The Dog?)

Quoted: Someone needs to compile a list of songs that remind us of DU. Here are my contributions: White Rabbit- Jefferson Airplane Fairies Wear Boots- Black Sabbath The Sound Of Silence- Simon and Garfunkel F*** DU- The ARFCOM Band (also note the popular title song for their latest album, Did He Shoot The Dog?)

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb  

Did you guys know that an ANAGRAM for New York Times

is

MONKEYS WRITE

Now that's one I have to file away in the future use file.  MaD has a cousin that is close to being a DUher, can't understand why I don't try to counter his argument.  I just tell him to get his drunk ass away from me before I kick it.  "But I'm not drunk yet!"  "Oh you're sober and insulting me?"  At that point he finally gets the hint.

Quoted: Actually, what the NYT and mainstream media in general are doing is trying to discredit "blogs" in general.   That's why they called "DU" a blog, even though its a message board.   The main stream media had their asses handed to them by web logs this year, especially conservative blogs that fact checked their asses nine ways from Sunday.  They're now on the counterattack, and the meme they'll be trying to propagate is that "blogs" are a bunch of cranks like on DU.   Guilt by association, defamation by categorization.

"DING"  We have a winner.

This is *exactly* what is going on.

-Gator

Quoted: Actually, what the NYT and mainstream media in general are doing is trying to discredit "blogs" in general.   That's why they called "DU" a blog, even though its a message board.   The main stream media had their asses handed to them by web logs this year, especially conservative blogs that fact checked their asses nine ways from Sunday.  They're now on the counterattack, and the meme they'll be trying to propagate is that "blogs" are a bunch of cranks like on DU.   Guilt by association, defamation by categorization.

That'd be my guess, too...


 - georgestrings

DU's letter was published today.  Sounds like someone's feelings were hurt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Published: January 10, 2005

To the Editor:

As the administrator of the Web site Democratic Underground, I am perplexed as to why you would consider an obscure posting on a busy Internet discussion forum to be worthy of an article ("Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate," news article, Jan. 3)

Your article did not make clear that the message in question was posted by a completely anonymous individual, whose identity and political agenda are impossible to determine. The article also did not mention that the posting appeared to be an innocent question from a person guilty of nothing more than ignorance. Indeed, the posting's title (which you did not mention) was "One more dumb question regarding the earthquake in Asia."

Our discussion forum is different from a traditional blog. We get approximately 25,000 messages posted each day, and we cannot possibly check them all for accuracy.

It is fairly common for right-wing Web sites to cherry-pick the most extreme or outlandish posts from our forum in order to paint all liberals as wacky or extreme. I was surprised to see The Times doing it, too.

David Allen
Washington, Jan. 5, 2005

"You know, we've exploded many millions of tons of ordnance upon this poor planet," the writer said. "All that 'shock and awe' stuff we've just dumped onto the Asian part of this earth - could we have fractured something? Perhaps the earth was just reacting to something that man has done to injure it. The earth is organic, you know. It can be hurt."

Just how fucking STUPID do you have to be to actually BELIEVE this shit?

Quoted: ... Just how fucking STUPID do you have to be to actually BELIEVE this shit?

Stupid and/or naive enough to take the word of someone who claims to have two advanced degrees in mathematics, but presents calculations that yield outputs having four significant digits from inputs having two and three significant digits.  And that "prove" that John Kerry really "won" the election.

Cold link - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x273586

Quoted: Actually, what the NYT and mainstream media in general are doing is trying to discredit "blogs" in general.   That's why they called "DU" a blog, even though its a message board.   The main stream media had their asses handed to them by web logs this year, especially conservative blogs that fact checked their asses nine ways from Sunday.  They're now on the counterattack, and the meme they'll be trying to propagate is that "blogs" are a bunch of cranks like on DU.   Guilt by association, defamation by categorization.

+1000

And I'm sure DU will just consider this more evidence of the "right-wing hate journalism" that permeates all media.

Quoted: You know you're a member of the whacko fringe when the New York Times questions your credibility.

Quoted: Quoted: ... Just how fucking STUPID do you have to be to actually BELIEVE this shit? Stupid and/or naive enough to take the word of someone who claims to have two advanced degrees in mathematics, but presents calculations that yield outputs having four significant digits from inputs having two and three significant digits.  And that "prove" that John Kerry really "won" the election. Cold link - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x273586

Yeah, did you see the results for the military?   kerry "won" their vote by around 4% or something according to them!!!

(bs)

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: ... Just how fucking STUPID do you have to be to actually BELIEVE this shit? Stupid and/or naive enough to take the word of someone who claims to have two advanced degrees in mathematics, but presents calculations that yield outputs having four significant digits from inputs having two and three significant digits.  And that "prove" that John Kerry really "won" the election. Cold link - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x273586 Yeah, did you see the results for the military?   kerry "won" their vote by around 4% or something according to them!!! (bs) www.geocities.com/electionmodel/electionmodel_files/dueXITdeMOGR_26354_image004.png

They weren't so gung-ho about the exit polls saying the public voted very decisively against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela's elections.

Quoted: "You know, we've exploded many millions of tons of ordnance upon this poor planet," the writer said. "All that 'shock and awe' stuff we've just dumped onto the Asian part of this earth - could we have fractured something? Perhaps the earth was just reacting to something that man has done to injure it. The earth is organic, you know. It can be hurt." Just how fucking STUPID do you have to be to actually BELIEVE this shit?

Stupid enough for those morons to get into a debate on it I guess