(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, faithful to his "instapundit" schtick, relayed news of the weapons find at Charles de Gaulle airport mere hours after the news of the find was reported by the BBC. He headlined his post, "THIS KEEPS HAPPENING," a none too subtle insinuation betrayed by the employ of ellipses and The Professor's determination to report the ethnicity of persons arrested elsewhere for unrelated offenses. He then advised all to "Keep [their] eye on this."
GHR followed his own advice - for all of 28 hours. The next day he told of an "INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT IN PARIS," linking to this BBC follow-up. Allowing himself more than his customary and wearying "indeed," Reynolds, while admitting the situation had acquired some complexity, told readers that the "original story -- that a passerby saw weapons in the trunk -- seemed a bit odd" to him. Of course he failed to register his suspicions at the time. He is, after all, the "instapundit," not the hold-on-let-me-think-about-this-pundit. He wouldn't have let some irksome suspicions intrude upon his determination to fault Islam and its adherents as twisted.
The Professor spent the succeeding days filing from the "NO-SURPRISE-HERE DEPARTMENT," telling us that "Somebody needs to explain to [the assailant of a French Rabbi] that Islam is a religion of peace, and does not countenance such acts." Two days later he issued a "EURO-ISLAMOTERRORISM UPDATE," erring by not calling it Euro-Islamofascistterrorism, as per the killblogger style guide.
Serving as Charles Johnson's tag team partner must be tiring, especially when grappling with global terrorists and their anti-Semitic appeasers on the left. I therefore cannot blame The Professor for his failure of late to keep his eye on the story as he asked us all to. For my part, I remained faithful to Reynolds' call. So too did the BBC. I wonder about the other warbloggers.
Mader Blog, at the time of the first BBC report, was among the most sensible, asking aloud, "What's the story with the Algerians?" The Conjecturer posed a similar question.
The reliably obnoxious Shark Blog wasted next to no time and even less thought denouncing the "Religion-of-peacenik" arrested.
I hope The Greatest [sic] Jeneration was typing with tongue in cheek when she wrote "There may be more to this civilians TIPS program than we're giving it credit for!" I don't think the aptly named Feces Flinging Monkey was. It noted, "Somebody was paying attention, and that person saved hundreds of lives this weekend by having the faith to act upon a single suspicious act [perpetrated by "fuckwits"]. Good show." As GHR would say, "indeed."
As always, Bill Quick, who looks fantastic in white (he thoughtfully removed the hood when posing for this picture), lead the stupidity stakes by a most comfortable margin. He was "Sure Al-Qaeda Is Aware of it." posted by Anonymous1:54 AM
• • • • •
The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.
