Beck Vs. The Bloggers — Again

Sioux Falls Argus Leader editor Randell Beck must be a glutton for punishment, because he’s going for a second round against the blogosphere. Beck is the person who argued that “If Hitler were alive today, he’d have his own blog.” as well as calling bloggers “yahoos” and “violent.” For this, Beck ended up becoming a poster boy for journalistic arrogance.

Now, after the Rathergate scandal, Eason Jordan’s remarks at Davos, and more evidence of the sorry state of American journalism, Beck launches out with a full-page polemic against those evil bloggers. Of course, the piece isn’t online yet (the Argus Leader has yet to join the 21st Century apparently). Beck begins by regurgitating talking points from the far left:

In the age of the Internet, anyone with a computer and an axe to grind can pretend to be a journalist, and that’s just what a zealot named Jeff Gannon did in 2003 and 2004 in a series of “articles” for a Web site devoted to the conservative cause.

Beck already starts out sounding like one of the conspiracy-minded moonbats at any number of far-left websites himself. The scare quotes around “articles” is a nice touch as well. Argus “Leader” “editor” Randell Beck apparently takes umbrage at suggestions that the quality of his “papers” “reporting” isn’t exactly “up to par.” Beck continues:

His tactics: Assemble a loose collection of “facts” to suggest (Argus political editor David) Kranz and the newspaper had conspired to conceal what the GOP contended was the dark truth about Daschle — that he was a morally bankrupt Kennedy liberal hard at work undermining “South Dakota values.”

But Gannon, who resigned his job at a Republican Web site last month after concerns arose about how he got White House press credentials, didn’t play that game alone.

Although questions remain about exactly how and to what extent they were connected, Gannon’s accusations against this newspaper quickly found their way onto a few other conservative Web logs — “blogs” in the Internet world — designed to demonize Daschle.

It’s a conspiracy now! Beck does what the far-left fringe tries to do — make some kind of conspiratorial connection between Gannon/Guckert, bloggers, and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

I agree with Beck on one thing — the connection between South Dakota bloggers Jason Van Beek and Jon Lauck should have been disclosed. However, the evidence which Van Beek has uncovered about the relationship between the Argus Leader and the Democrats is far more solid than the Argus cares to admit. The evidence speaks for itself. The Argus Leader was noted by Roll Call for its attacks against former Senator Larry Pressler in 1990. Should they be added to the vast conspiracy designed to denigrate the Argus Leader.

Beck’s tirade is an attempt to paint the Argus as being the victims of some kind of coordinated right-wing plot. It’s the same kind of self-righteous conspiratorial talk that is the hallmark of the far-left fringes. If Beck feels that the Argus is not biased in its reporting, let’s see him answer the charges directly. Is it mere coincidence that the Argus had a history of running positive stories about Daschle and negative ones about Thune? Would he argue that the memos contained in the records of former Democratic Senator Jim Abourezk identifying Kranz by name are somehow fraudulent? There have been some very specific charges leveled against the Argus, and Beck has yet to convincingly and logically answer them. The fact that he feels the need to resort to conspiracy theories and thinly-veiled ad hominem attacks against South Dakota bloggers only suggests the weakness of his position.

Beck argues that the media is trustworthy, but bloggers are not. The difference being that bloggers are open with their partisan affiliations and opinions, and the Argus Leader attempts to maintain a thin veneer of objectivity despite the large amount of evidence to the contrary.

One would think that after making himself a worldwide laughingstock through his irresponsible attacks against bloggers, Beck would have learned his lesson. Apparently not.

UPDATE: Beck’s hit piece on bloggers is now online.