CNN host: “Is there going to come a point where something’s going to have to be done legally” about anonymous bloggers

In the wake of the Shirley Sherrod story, Andrew Keen, Kyra Phillips, and John Roberts are all in a lather about anonymous bloggers “(saying) rotten things about people.”  (The former is an author; the latter two are CNN employees.)  Story here.

For example, if I were to call Andrew Keen, Kyra Phillips, and John Roberts pathetic, sniveling, fascist douchebags, that would presumably be the sort of thing they were talking about.

Quoting Roberts from the story:

“Well what Andrew talked about with me was this idea of a gatekeeper but there are huge first amendment rights that come into play here – freedom of speech and all that. And he said the people who need to be the gatekeepers are the media to check into these stories.”

“Freedom of speech and all that.”  Some, you know, basic constitutional rights or some crap.  Perhaps John Roberts is too slack-jawed stupid to understand the fundamentals of U.S. history.  (I guess that would be some more of that rotten stuff.)  Also, Kyra Phillips needs to do something with her hair, and she should buy clothes somewhere besides a whore convention.  (Ditto.)

All right, all right.  Point made.

Something struck me immediately about that quote, and I’m surprised the NewsBusters piece didn’t mention it.  Roberts reports Keen as saying “the people who need to be the gatekeepers are the media to check into these stories.”  That is a comically ironic assertion.

Hey, CNN types?  Those “anonymous bloggers” who need “gatekeepers,” in your opinion, have significant audiences because they’re doing what used to be your job, before you quit.  They’re breaking stories.  They’re doing serious investigative journalism.  Know what you’re doing a whole lot of the time (when you’re not worshiping Barack Obama, I mean)?  Repeating what they’ve reported.

Andrew Keen thinks “the media” should be the bloggers’ “gatekeepers”?  I say bring it, and bring it hard.  It might reacquaint the older folks—who might have once been real journalists—with what it is to put together a real story.  The younger employees might see it for the first time.

You know, that’s only if you media types are going to be serious about it.  If you aren’t, then it’s essentially you quitting a job; someone else picking it up; and you griping about how poorly they’re doing it.

We shall continue to point and laugh.

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