Not the Photoshopping of war zone pictures, making the situation look worse than it is. Not major anchors reporting false stories about a President’s history, in an attempt to sway the election. At the time, CBS noted:

A report issued by an independent panel on Jan. 10, 2005 concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of this Sept. 8, 2004 broadcast.

Not media sources printing falsified stories by a certain Liberal soldier with an agenda. Not the AFP “borrowing” pictures from soldiers. Not the same photo agency printing pictures with false captions, twice, and then discreetly removing them. Not CNN quoting Whitehouse.org, a well-known Liberal parody site, as official information. Not columnists writing columns based of fake quotes, by people who don’t exist.

No, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the bloggers’ fault that the MSM has lost credibility. As Allah says, good stuff. By the way, this columnist was one of those at The Seattle Times, that burst out in cheers at the news of Rove’s resignation.

Times Executive Editor David Boardman was dismayed at our outburst.

In an internal memo to the newsroom, he wrote, “A good newsroom is a sacred and magical place in which we can and should test every assumption, challenge each other’s thinking, ask the fundamental questions those in power hope we will overlook.

“… It is about independent thinking and sound, facts-based journalism,” he continued, “the difference between what we do and the myopic screed that is passed off as ‘advocacy journalism’ these days.”

Not buying that? I can’t blame you. The hallowed halls of journalism that I was privileged to enter more than 20 years ago are looking more and more like the New York subway. The walls covered in bloggers’ scrawl, the platform crowded with any yahoo with a camera and an open mike. All are headed to your computer screen or television for the 15 seconds you’ll give them before moving on to the next hot spot.

That’s not how we do things at this newspaper.

Here, every morning, some 20 smart, educated, well-read and diverse people gather around a table and talk. We offer opinions on how stories were approached, written and presented. We say what worked, what didn’t, and how we can do it better next time.

We’re the yahoos? The very people whose private investigations have led to your own media outlet’s findings that reports have been inaccurate, exaggerated, or just plain made-up? Pardon us if we get in the way of your exclusive club’s goal of indoctrinating the public, through reports that are, and I quote, “fake, but accurate”.

Honey, the halls of journalism have looked like a New York subway since long before bloggers made an appearance. Bloggers are just spotlighting the grime on the wall.

Being “objective”, means not cheering openly in a newsroom, when a prominent member of specific party resigns. Being “objective” means not donating overwhelmingly to a specific political party. Being “objective” means not making up stories in an attempt to sway an election.

I’m not an idiot. I know my grammar isn’t perfect, I’ve probably misspelled words, and sometimes I get the story wrong. But, I’m openly biased. I’m a Conservative Republican, and that’s the position I present the news from. Oh, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the news I “print”, I consider accurate at the time. If I’m wrong, as I have been in the past, I don’t hide it. I admit it.