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January 28, 2003

Jim Henley suggests that, as war ramps up, we are entering a period of—
The death of newsblogging, basically. For at least a period of time there will be next to no point in linking to “breaking news” because so much of it will be contradictory and disinformative by intent.
In support of this, Jim picks at the evidently-contradictory threads of this Ha’aretz report about a possible role for the Jordanian monarchy in post-surrender Iraq, and fires up the immense translation machine at Unqualified Offerings World HQ (dials, levers, mad cackling, Van der Graaf generator). [02:32 PM]
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Comments on Jim Henley:

N.Z. Bear ::: (view all by) ::: January 28, 2003, 02:42 PM:

I think Jim is correct, but I would assert that we've been in that period for some time.

This is why all the endless discussion of whether Bush is "wobbly" --- or, if you're on the other side of the debate, whether he's "rushing to war" --- are kinda pointless.

Regardless of whether you support or oppose military action against Iraq, I think everyone should agree that if Bush does decide to act militarily, it should be a swift and (to the degree possible) surprise attack. Giving Hussein a week's notice in advance is just not acceptable this time around.

My sincere hope is that one unexpected day sometime soon, we'll just wake up and be told the attack is underway... but then, I'm a crazy warmonger, I suppose...

skimble ::: (view all by) ::: January 28, 2003, 04:39 PM:

We don't lack breaking news, we lack context. The real causes and the real consequences that will enable us to interpret the meaning of all this breaking news 97 of the war, of the "stimulus package," of all the other affronts to our democracy 97 are what's missing.

I'd rather see bloggers work to develop context than to instantly create zillions of links to the same "this just in" stories.

Lis ::: (view all by) ::: January 28, 2003, 06:07 PM:

I disagree. There's more to news than just foreign war reporting.
We may not get the front-lines stories, but there's still going to be lots going on in Washington and the states that are worth writing and reading about.

Stefan Jones ::: (view all by) ::: January 28, 2003, 10:27 PM:

Death of newsblogging, fah.

I suspect bloggers will be gleefully tearing into the disinformation and sorting through the contradictions.

Mary Kay ::: (view all by) ::: January 29, 2003, 12:59 AM:

I assume that you're seeing something Jim has posted more recently than Jan 24? That's the latest I get and when I click on your link. The same sort of thing happened when Chad Orzel changed servers too. No, hitting reload doesn't help. GRRRR Anybody got a suggestion?

MKK

Jim Henley ::: (view all by) ::: January 29, 2003, 10:42 AM:

Mary: "GRRRR Anybody got a suggestion?"

Wait for DNS to propagate out your way?

I keep getting in trouble for not offering alternatives, but I actually have one this time!

http://66.246.23.2/~clearing

FWIW, DNS hasn't caught up with my office yet either.

Mary Kay ::: (view all by) ::: January 29, 2003, 12:04 PM:

Jim: Patrick emailed me to tell me to empty my cache and restart my browser. That worked. I suppose it's faintly embarassing that I didn't know to do that, but I've literally never had to do it before. I guess no more embarassing than your not remembering I prefer Mary Kay.

MKK