Some of you will remember that Damian Penny came to town two weeks ago which was a great excuse for all us members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VRWC) to get together and drink.

However we were not alone that evening, our movements were being carefully noted and scrutinized by none other than Antonia Zerbisias of the Toronto Star. Zerbisias for those who don’t know is the Toronto Star’s “media” columnist. Which in the world of the Star means writing pieces complaining that the main stream media is not left wing enough.

Zerby (as she is affectionately known) has also developed a bit of a blog fetish. In particular a right-wing blog fetish. It started many moons ago with an encounter she had with Charles Johnson’s widely read and influential blog Little Green Footballs. I don’t remember all the details but there was a pretty messy argument in the comments section in which readers of LGF bloodied Zerby for repeating 9/11 conspiracy theories that had been voiced by some people with ties to anti-Semitic organizations.

I believe that is the gist of it (I’m too lazy to check for the exact sequence of events- so if I am wrong feel free to correct me).

So today in the Star “Fat Tony” (as Bob Tarantino lovingly refers to her) has her own article on her encounter with the bloggers of the night right and in typical big Media fashion she does some things right and some things wrong.

First the things she did right.

1. She mentioned the Meatriarchy. Twice.

2. She mentioned Greg Staples. Greg needs more mentions. I hope he gets more readers from this because he deserves it.

3. She said we were all smart and young and male - this is for the most part true as I am all three of those things and more.

4. She said we should have our own TV show. This is a brilliant idea. It could be like that show Hugh Hefner used to have in the 60’s like a cocktail party where everyone sits around talking and there is cool jazz playing in the background and tons of hot chicks. Or it could be a more serious political discussion show where right and left debate the issues and then hot chicks mud wrestle. In fact forget the political discussion bit altogether!

5. She said we are looking for attention. This is true but obvious. Anyone who has a blog is looking for attention. If they weren’t they would simply set the blog up as a private blog (which you can do on any blog) where the entries wouldn’t be viewable to the ‘Net as a whole.

6. She said she was the belle of the ball. That was true. Antonia was surrounded by a gaggle of bloggers the whole night. And none of them spit on her. Except the ones who were a little drunk and excitable and when they talked little bits of spittle flew out hitting all manner of people from all political stripes. But that was accidental not intentional.

Ok let’s get to the things she did wrong.

1. She didn’t mention the Meatriarchy enough. Everyone knows that this is wrong on so many levels. In fact the column should have been on the front page of the Star with the lead: Meatriarchy brokers meeting between “left wing dupe” and her fiercest critics.
Because dear reader that is exactly what happened. See “the peroxide wonder” and I have become email buddies of sort over the past six months. This happened when I tricked her into reading my blog and she got hooked on The Meatriarchy. So when Tarantino announced the blogger bash in early January I thought it would be fun to get “menopause girl” out to meet with some of us. I put the bug in her ear in an email and she responded by asking for details and directions.

Then came the night of the bash and I realized that I hadn’t reminded her that tonight was the night. So before I left for Toronto I dashed off a quick email inviting her again and giving her my cell phone number.

Much later while engrossed in conversation with Mike of Canadian Headhunter I felt a tingling in my pants. At first I thought it was because our waitress was a complete hottie who looked somewhat like Raymi the Minx. But then I realized it was my cell phone, which I had set to vibrate. I answered and found my self-speaking live to the “defender of conspirozoids” herself.

First she wanted to know if I had told anyone she was coming. I said I hadn’t although someone earlier had said to the group in general “Hey I’m surprised Antonia Zerbisias isn’t here.” To which I replied, ” I thought she was coming”. But no one really picked up on it so I let it slide. So then she asked who was there and I told her all her favorite bloggers: Kathy Shaidle, Debbye Stratigacos, Damian Penny, Mike Brock, Bob Tarantino were there plus more!

Then she wanted to know how to recognize me and I told her I would be wearing the dorky hat while everyone else (’cept the girls) would be bald.

This is the great truth of the blogosphere: It is largely dominated by white bald men.

So anyway an hour or so later she showed up and dashed by me saying, “where’s Damian Penny?” and the party was on. Later however we did have a good chat about S&M and certain famous people who are devotees. (Remind me to send you a list of kinky bloggers Zerb. )

2. Fact check alert. As we say in the blogosphere “we can fact check your ass” and the bigger the ass whoops, never mind.

Antonia has relied heavily on Mike’s account of the meeting for her article. The trouble is that Mike is a trickster and made most of it up. See Damian never said that “Bush was the greatest president since Lincoln” or that “Newfoundland shouldn’t have joined Confederation” Mike just made that up for atmosphere. Mike does that a lot on his blog (and used to do it a lot in my comment section) so you have to read him with a grain of salt sometimes. Unless he is talking about Genuity. Then it is all business (well sorta).

3. Repeating 9/11 conspiracies that are easily disproved. See Damian’s post of today for that one.

4. Misreading our relationship with the mainstream media. Zerby claims that she “exposed us as eager for recognition from the old media they sneer at”. This is misleading and a misreading of the intent of blogs like Damian’s, Bob’s and all the others. It is true that blogs are harshly critical of the media. But that is because there are very few reasoned and reasonable critiques within the media of itself. What most in the mainstream media don’t realize is that for years people have been upset at them. Not just for shoddy reporting but for the thinly disguised editorializing that passes for news and yes for the obvious left-wing bias. I have no intention of destroying the media, nor do I want it destroyed. I do however seek to make them aware that the free ride is over.

We value a healthy and vigorous free press. But not a free press that has become caught up in the belief that good reporting means casting all news in a sinister and pessimistic tone. You want proof? Try reading the Bolshevik Rag’s Star’s so called “business section” . It could easily be renamed “anti-business”. As an example check out today’s article on Jetsgo’s demise. We are told that the collapse of the poorly run carrier will mean “less competition”, “higher fares” and most terrible of all “fatter profits” for the remaining carriers.

Funnily enough profitable airlines tend to stay in business so that passengers can actually get to the airport without worrying about their crappy little poorly managed carrier going bust in the middle of the night and not telling anyone. Call me crazy but I think that is a good thing. And as for less competition if the Star is suddenly a supporter of a competitive airline market are they going to begin clamoring for international carriers to be allowed to fly domestic routes in Canada? We can suppose that they might since it only seems logical however I wouldn’t recommend that you bet money or hold your breath.

As an aside the cover of today’s Star shows a distraught mother and her child who had booked a flight with Dirt Cheap Air Jestgo however no where in the article is there any mention of grief counselors descending on the airport as they do with any other tragedy. I know that they do because the media seems to think that the appearance of a grief counselor warrants special mention. I have begun to conclude that every reporter is married to a grief counselor.

Back to my point. Blogging is the only (yes only) vehicle for media criticism that is available to the public at large. We are no longer slaves to the letters to the editor page. Just as consumers researching a particular purchase can now read all kinds of online forums discussing various products and their good and bad points - (see my post last week on Vonage) consumers of media can now do the same via blogs.

AS for the “sneering” careful reading of most blogs will reveal that the sneering is often directed at individuals (largely columnists) not the entire press as a whole. Although when the media acts in perfect lockstep it is hard not to sneer. Face it while the press is made up of lots of bright energetic and in some cases courageous people there are times when as a whole their herd mentality and shoddy reportage is pathetic.

As an example consider the Pavlovian response from all media outlets to any type of political protest whether it is legitimate or not. Thus the actions of violent thugs at so-called ‘anti-globalization’ protests are reported with breathless excitement as if they were true revolutionaries and not reactionary radicals. Closer to home all John Clarke of the hilariously mis-named Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has to do is snap his fingers and the media will stampede to his latest bit of political theatre and report on it without the slightest trace of irony.

In short it’s hard not to sneer when the media sets itself up not as a reporter of events but as an unhealthy co-dependant of those who create those events.

5. She implied that I might be mentally unstable. Ok, I don’t know that for a fact however she does make this comment whilst gushing over handsome Bob Tarantino:

“unlike many of his cohorts [he] has a solid grounding in the reality based community.”

When I read that I was like WTF? I would be willing to admit that there are a few bloggers on both sides of the spectrum that have obvious mental problems. But most of the people I know are pretty normal. They all have jobs (and in a great many cases good jobs) they are very bright and none of them seem to be suffering from delusions like I dunno - that Mossad caused 9/11 in conjunction with Carlyle group and Halliburton .

The reality based “sneer” might have had some traction a year or six months ago when the hysteria over the Iraq war was at a fever pitch in the run up to the American Election but it is hard to trump the reality of what is happening in the Middle East as a direct result of the war we “cheered for”.

The election in Iraq that we supported went off without a major hitch in spite of the howling naysayers of the “reality based community”. Winds of democracy are spreading throughout the Middle East in spite of the sneering of those who saw our support for the war based on a “domino theory” of sorts as being hopelessly naive. And above all the man who was too stupid to get elected the first time around and who was going to be severely trounced by the “reality based community” managed to win - decisively.

It isn’t hard when objectively looking at the facts to conclude who is playing with a full deck and who isn’t. I would invite Zerby to examine the minds of her community of equals at Tass The Star before making such a broad-brush statement.

6. No live links in the online version. Ok this is the most egregious of all. If you are going to do an article about blogs and have that article appear on your own site at least have the Internet savvy to include live links to those sites mentioned. I don’t think this is Zerby’s fault but many other news outlets (CNN Fox News) seem to be quite adept at linking to other stories and sites in every article they have on-line. If the editors at the Star are at all interested in portraying the paper as even remotely cutting edge they should fix this.

Heck, if even the most deranged right wing blogger can figure out how to hyper-link . Why not the moral and intellectual giants at the Star?

UPDATE: I completely forgot this quote from the Zerb: “I did drop a bomb in the room.”

Y’know I was gonna comment on that at the time but I feared that I would be the one fingered based on the old “whoever smelled it dealt it” law. Now we know who the culprit was. Maybe less burritos next time Zerb.

Update II: Kate, Debbye, Kathy and Mike have added their own input.

Popularity: 3% [?]