Blogs vs. the mainstream?

Armed Liberal dissects an article by Henry Farrell and does a pretty good job of it. I think he misses an important point though.

Farrell writes

If you think that blogs should replace the mainstream media, then you should be prepared yourself to live up to some minimal standards of scrupulosity, intellectual honesty, and willingness to deal fairly with facts that are uncomfortable for your own ideological position. You should be prepared to live up yourself to the standards that you demand of others. Exercising the "shucks, I'm just a little old blogger" get-out clause is rank hypocrisy when you want the blogosphere to devour the New York Times whole. Funny that Reynolds et al. don't see it that way.

Henry apparently doesn't get out much.

If he did, he would realize that no one is living up to his impossible standard, least of all the mainstream media that he worships. Do we really need to rehash Ra^thgate, the Swiftvets story, the liberal bias at such bastions of "scrupulosity, intellectual honesty and willingness to deal fairly with facts" as the likes of the New York Times, the LA Times, et. al.? It's difficult even to know where to begin. Should we dissect the manifest unfairness in the slavish coverage of Joe Wilson's lies and the subsequent silence when those lies were revealed by the Senate Intelligence Committee Report? The AP's false report of boos at a Bush rally in response to the news that Clinton was in the hospital? Or to highlight a more recent outrage, the complete lack of coverage of the total mess that is the Washington governor's election?

You see Henry, the difference between blogs and the media isn't "scrupulosity, intellectual honesty and [a] willingness to deal fairly with facts". The truth is, neither has cornered that market. The difference is bloggers know it. The media not only doesn't know it, they cling to the fantasy that they actually are fair, a laughable and obvious delusion.

Armed Liberal is right to point out that bloggers are biased and that readers should avail themselves of a variety of sources for information. What he missed was your phoney assumption that the media is not.

UPDATE: Athena understands what a blog is.

This blog is my point of view--I would think anyone knowing what a "blog" is would realize the indicative nature of the word.

Unfortunately Henry, who is a blogger, doesn't.