Adopt a Campaign Journalist in 2004: The Drift of a Suggestion

Dec. 23. At the Daily Kos, Vet 4 Dean reacts to discussion at Blog For America, the Dean campaign's main gig:

Earlier today on DFA, there was a good bit of discussion of the latest piece of "journalism" committed by Ms. Jodi Wilgoren in the NY Times. Well, I decided it was time to lose my blogging virginity and created The Wilgoren Watch.

Dec. 23. And he does. The Wilgoren Watch: "Dedicated to deconstructing the New York Times coverage of Howard Dean's campaign for the White House." (The inaugural post.)

Dec. 28. At Steve Gilliard's News Blog, Gilliard says he has had enough: Time to Take the Gloves Off:

The media in America lives in a dual world, one where they want to hold people accountable, yet flip out when people do the same to them...

I think it would be a really, really good idea to track reporters, word for word, broadcast for broadcast, and print the results online. Not just for any one campaign or cause, but to track people's reporting the way we track other services....

Keeping score of who's right and wrong, how many times they repeat cannards like Al Gore invented the Internet and make obvious errors. Not accusations of ideology, but actual data and facts.

Dec. 30. Reacting to Gilliard's idea, Atrios gives it a second. Hardball: "We should have an 'adopt a journalist' program. As Steve suggets, people should choose a journalist, follow everything they write, archive all their work, and critique and contextualize it where appropriate."

Dec. 30. Atrios returns to the subject, noting that the Wilgoren Watch already exists: "I'm not going to organize this but feel free to forward on links. I'll set up a special blogroll section." But he cautions:

...ideally whoever does this shouldn't just be doing instant reaction. I'm thinking of archiving all of their work (on your hard drive - copyright and all), and really tracing through and providing context for all their work. This includes talking heads appearances, too.

Dec. 30. Ex Lion Tamer: "Gilliard's Modest Proposal."

Dec. 30. See Why? "Eschaton has a cool idea."

Dec. 31. At Liberal Pride, an Adopt-a-Journalist Forum is created, "to facilitate the project that was conceived at Eschaton."

Jan. 1. Shadow of the Hegemon: "I'd like to see two versions of it."

Continued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2

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