Wampum

The Washington Post turned a corner this morning in their generally dismissive treatment of the Blogosphere as inherently biased, unethical, gossipy and just plain "unprofessional", In their feature on blogger-turned-embedded Bill Roccio, formerly of "The Fourth Rail" and now of "Threatswatch", Bloggers, particularly when associated with well-funded think tanks, can in fact not only be counted on to accurately report the news in a thoroughly unbiased fashion, but they can actually do it better than the traditional media. Well, if you're a rightwing blogger, that is:

BAGHDAD -- Retired soldier Bill Roggio was a computer technician living in New Jersey less than two months ago when a Marine officer half a world away made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Frustrated by the coverage they were receiving from the news media, the Marines invited Roggio, 35, who writes a popular Web log about the military called "The Fourth Rail" (http://www.billroggio.com ), to come cover the war from the front lines.

He raised more than $30,000 from his online readers to pay for airfare, technical equipment and body armor. A few weeks later, he was posting dispatches from a remote outpost in western Anbar province, a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency.

"I was disenchanted with the reporting on the war in Iraq and the greater war on terror and felt there was much to the conflict that was missed," Roggio, who is currently stationed with Marines along the Syrian border, wrote in an e-mail response to written questions. "What is often seen as an attempt at balanced reporting results in underreporting of the military's success and strategy and an overemphasis on the strategically minor success of the jihadists or insurgents."

Ignoring the fact that Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck have a budding career in Rumfield's paid propagandist corps (PPC) with their description of an Iraq which, from their indications has turned the corner, the article is just stunning, a piece of art actually, in its success in steam cleaning the bias out of Roggio's actions and ultimate objectives.

Nowhere are we treated to Roggio's political leanings, which as gleaned from just a sample of quotes from The Fourth Rail, are clearly to the right of center:

And who are the true saviors of Bill Roccio? Well, the NeoCons, of course:

In fact, the only indication Mssrs. Finer and Struck provide their readers that Roggio tends towards the NeoConservative end of the spectrum is this:

After military officials in Baghdad said Roggio could not be issued media credentials unless he was affiliated with an organization, the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning research organization in Washington, offered him an affiliation, according to an entry on Roggio's blog.

The real reason calling this kind of crap out is critical is that such stories which whitewash true rightwing bias as "objective reporting" only prop up the current GOP meme that "Conservative = Patriotic = Honest", whereas any negative news coming out of Iraq, whether from mainstream media, Iraqi bloggers or returning soldiers is suspect. In the WaPo article, not only is Roggio's NeoCon political framework obscured and his transformation to "objective" reporter complete, but not focusing on every reopened school and rebuilt hospital is a media "failure", while accurately reporting Iraqi and US casualties, civilian and military, is aiding and abetting the enemy.

The WaPo should be thoroughly spanked for this kind of editorial malpractice, and Finer and Struck tossed overboard, preferrably into a sea of hungry bloggers.

[Note: In reference to the title and picture, I was looking for a screenshot of Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story, when, in pieces, he exhaults his fellow toys to toss Woody from the moving truck...but alas, no such luck.]