Fascinating to watch a "blogswarm" in progress.

I was chatting with some folks last night and the talk got around to the news of the week. I was able to let them in on what will be a big story in the coming week. Like all of us, I not only write blogs but I read 'em too. Lot's of them. It takes effort to sustain a story in the blog world, really sustain it. Things pop up and everyone comments on it, and it quickly passes on. But when something won't fade away, it's a sign that there is something there, something that a legion of news junkies are finding very compelling.

The Eason Jordon story is moving through the blog world like fire through dry brush. It's really something to watch, and you really can watch it happen. The links that are a vital part of proper blogging make it possible to jump on a news wave like this and ride it like a surfer (the old analogy for using the Web finally has more apt meaning.) You can watch people read and react to each other's comments and to infusions of new information. Somebody's going to get a Master's or even a Doctoral dissertation out of this.

If, perchance, you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the latest coverage from Captain Quarters, Hugh Hewitt, LaShawn Barber and then follow through some of the links they list as well. CNN News Executive Eason Jordan made some very startling remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos in front of a lot of important people. He accused US troops of deliberately targeting (and killing) journalists in Iraq. (For the details follow the blog trail for the eyewitness accounts.) Since then Eason has backpedaled furiously and the major media have been exceptionally quiet. Apparently the discussion was videotaped but as yet the tape has not surfaced. Indeed, there is no evidence that anyone except for bloggers has gone looking for it.

That's the most interesting part of all this to me. I don't doubt that Jordan is off the deep-end. He's very well practiced at publicly speaking in an impassive, jounalistic manner, while privately sharing in the outrageous fantasies of the loonier elements of the anti-war crowd. He got carried away at Davos and let some of the private conversation slip into a public forum. He's surrounded by European press and intellectual elites and they have probably had plenty of chat off the record about the things they all knew were happening in Iraq. He forgot he was on the record (and on video) and let it slip. Oops! Now he wants it all to go away. Can't say I blame him. If that video turns out to show what eyewitnesses say it will, there's trouble afoot for Mr. Jordan.

No, Eason Jordan's behavior is pretty much expected. What's much more intriguing is the way this is shaping up as another MSM vs. the Blogosphere death-match. It's the incredible silence in the media about a public statement that was sufficiently shocking to more or less shut down a forum at the WEF, that's not some backwoods venue. If a US senator, any Senator of either party, had caused such a stir the network anchors would have been on flights that evening. Is it the existence of a tape? Once the tape is out the story changes. Either he said nothing really, and it dies, or he said what witnesses say he said, and it explodes. Could the news pros be holding off to get a look at the tape? or at least an official transcript? That makes sense until you realize that they are all there in Davos, covering the conference. They could be getting the tape directly from the organizers. Word hit the blogs this evening that the Media director of the WEF is mailing a VHS tape to a blogger who requested it. As LaShawn points out, it's hard to imaging that this is the best they can do. The whole thing has a strange smell to it, and its drawing the blogswarm like...um do I say "nectar draws bees" or "like blood draws sharks". Perhaps we should say, "Like bullshit draws bloggers."

Some have cast this as a left-vs-right conflict, but it looks much more like another MSM vs. Blog battle. If this tape actually shows up first at Sisyphean Musings, and its what witnesses say it will be, a couple of things will happen very quickly.

1) The MSM finally picks up the story in a big way

2) Jordan is history at CNN

3) News directors around the MSM will be explaining how they sat on this story and let the bloggers force it out. After Rathergate, the captured Cody doll and now this. The story on the surface is a news executive who is an embarrassment to his network. The much more lasting and in the long term important story is the continued collapse of the "Berlin Wall" that surrounds news reporting.

PS: La Shawn links in her post to Michael Bowen at Cobb. She includes this quote.

My fellow Conservative Brotherhood member Michael Bowen comments on Eason Jordan. Check this out: “In the steady disintermediation presaging a major shift in the way industries do business, Eason Jordon is being hoisted on the petard of disclosure. Blogs do it better than major media, and as others in the blogswarm have noted correctly, we are going to hound down and parse the question of journalistic privilege during wartime.”

Too cool.

I know Michael B and not only is he "too cool" but he really does talk that way. Talking with Michael is great adventure and great fun. The blogosphere is just made for guys like him.

PPS: I caught the mention in Hewitt's post about Peter Robinson and his effort to gain a place on the trustee board of Dartmouth University. Peter is another friend (so cool to see guys I know and like getting this sort of attention!) I am not a Dartmouth alum but knowing Peter and knowing the issues he is championing, I would strongly recommend him to any Dartmouth alums who chance to see this. Our universities, including our most important and prestigious institutions, are increasingly separating themselves from the country. The ivory tower is now something more akin to an alternate reality. We are doing a disservice to our finest young minds, at great expense, at a time in our history when we can little afford it. I like Peter's way of taking action about it.

Update: I see that Hugh has appeared on MSNBC and made a similar prediction to about the "big story that's about to break." If this goes down as predicted people are going to realize that if you don't read the blogs you don't know what's going on.