Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Breitbart as Victim

By John Ballard



His words.
It had to be done at the exact moment in time that the press would notice it ... I grant her that she had her redemptive transformation. I said that her humanity caused her to help the farmer, and that it's not just about race. Notice how the press conspicuously ignores that. It's in the video and it's in the text [of Breitbart's original post on the topic]. Who is doing the selective editing here? This is about destroying me. This is about the NAACP, but they've made it about me versus her. This is about exposing the Democratic Party and the progressive strategy of framing opposition to the Democratic Party agenda as racist.



I'm sorry. The news cycle is not the same as a crowded expressway where responsible drivers sometimes cause an accident in order to prevent a worse disaster. Shirleygate is about how irresponsible journalism plays out. 





Not to put too much of a point on it, effective communication is not optional. The rules are pretty much the same for everyone, from parents to bosses to politicians to military commanders to scientists.
And no matter who's doing the communicating, the burden of responsibility is on the source, not the target.

Effective communication by definition does not allow misunderstanding.



Either Breitbart dropped the ball or deliberately led others astray. In either case he failed as a good communicator and arguing that lines like "This is about destroying me" are waaay out of order.
The whole of Shirley Sherrod's talk is a study in clarity.
And the whole of Breitbart's cheap shot is just as easy to understand. Saying her humanity caused her to help the farmer, and that it's not just about race. is the equivalent of mouseprint on a concert ticket. Those who buy the ticket are motivated by expecting to see the event.
The mouseprint is only there in case the event is canceled.



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