Spiked by Roggio on a Thread Decrying MSM Abuses – A Touch of Irony?

Spiked by Roggio on a Thread Decrying MSM Abuses – A Touch of Irony?

Today, I was following with interest a post by Michelle Malkin, regarding the curious tale of one Iraqi AP “stringer,” Bilal Hussein.

She linked to an extremely interesting piece by Bill Roggio, so I read it.  (And I DO recommend that you read it, also.)

Roggio’s post had a lot of comments (over fifty).  I added my two cents to the posts.  I saw my comment on the site.  

Then, I refreshed the page to see if Roggio (or someone else) had responded to it.

To my surprise, I found that Roggio had responded, all right – by DELETING my comment.  Thanks, Roggio!

Now, no one is disputing Mr. Roggio’s sovereign right to delete anyone’s comment from his blog.

However, as a blogger myself, I find his action very curious indeed, considering that it was just one comment among many.

Now one might legitimately say it was bad form for me, as someone with his own blog, to wax eloquent on another’s blog, to which I will reply, okay.  

But, to DELETE my post?  I, as a blogger myself, find that curious indeed.  (I don’t delete posts unless they are extremely vulgar, viciously racist or advocate violence.)

The point of a blog having comments (and not all do) is, one would think, to permit people to comment.  While one could say that my post was overly long, so were some of the other (earlier) posts on the thread.

What I think is the real reason that my post was deleted is that Roggio deemed it politically incorrect, criticizing, as it did, the President and SECDEF Dumbsfeld.

That’s right, I think I may have criticized two of his sacred cows.  Oh, also, I mentioned (favorably!) Michael Savage, a man that is, for some reason, treated as a pariah by most of the MSBS.  (For an explanation of the term, keep reading.)

Now, to get thing in perspective, Roggio is, compared to me, VERY BIG in the blogosphere.  His spiking my comment is akin to a camel’s swatting a gnat.  Indeed, perhaps Roggio has swallowed the camel of backing Bush and Dumbsfeld poor strategy on the war and straining at the criticisms of gnats like Gunjam.

What I think we see in action here, ironically, is EXACTLY what Roggio was criticizing AP for on the very post from which my comment was spiked:  The effort of powerful media sources to “manage” the news.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Roggio is NOT part of the MSM.  In the post under discussion, he truly has done a great job of exposing AP’s apparent cooperation with phony stringers to get photos and stories in Iraq.

What I DO think, however, is that Roggio IS part of what I have termed the emerging MSBS (Mainstream Blogosphere) – topline blogs that now enjoy a wide readership and a loyal following and that have, in some sense, taken on some of the negative characteristics of the MSM that they so rightfully detest and criticize.

Anyway, I put my heart into that (now deleted by Roggio) comment, and – fortunately, for me, at least – I thought to copy it to WordPad just in case.  You can read it by going here.

Final note:  I do not hate Roggio.  He is a fine blogger.  However, I did not appreciate his having deleted my heartfelt comment – especially since I share his disgust for the abuses of the AP with regard to the Iraq War, share his desire to see a US victory in Iraq, view Roggio as a fellow conservative in the war of ideas, and most of all, because I have lived through the pain and strain of having had a son serve a combat tour in Iraq.  

But, apparently, I don’t measure up to Roggio’s higher, MSBS, standards.