Blogging feeding frenzy
I have a blog for kicks, to babble at like 4 or 5 people (maybe if I am lucky). I don't do it because I think I have something important to say (ambrose-a-rama is ironic), or I have any books to sell, or a column I am trying to syndicate. This is just for fun so I have other things to think about other than Sesame Street, though I will probably blog about that, too.
But you know what? I am sick in my stomach over professional bloggers and their minions.
I really don't like the rumors and half-truths that spread like a bad disease out there. Five years ago we only had to worry about the Drudge report. Now anyone with a typad or blogspot address is suddenly more credible than a paid journalist.
I read Open Book almost daily because she blogs about some interesting religion related things, and I have decided from the few exchanges we have had on her blog I would probably like her. But this week there's a comment section on her blog that is completely out of control (not her fault--she doesn't write the comments, but I am totally surprised her Christian readership has gone into a full-on assault on Islam because of this story).
If you hadn't read about this in the news yet, last week an entire family (parents and two daughters) of Egyptian Copts were brutally murdered in Jersey City. The police in their news conferences were keeping many details secret, normal police procedure so as not to tip their hand. However, that didn't stop the blogging world from spreading rumors pointing to signs that this was not a robbery but rather religiously motivated. They have all but lynched every Muslim in North Jersey.
Here's what is slated to be in this morning's Newark paper. I have to think that the details here are bonafide, and that the prosecutor's office isn't trying to cover-up the facts so as to bring down the defcon level up there. You can see the denials from the prosecutor listing every possible internet rumor out there. I really keyed in on quotes from relatives in Egypt, who were as quick to blame America's culture of violence as many bloggers were to blame Islam.
In Luxor, Egypt, relatives said they believed religion had nothing to do with the crime.
Milad Ibrahim, Armanious' cousin, blamed "the brutality of American society" and complained that the family's neighbors couldn't interfere to stop the crime.
Hosni Armanious, another close relative, said the killings would not have happened in Egypt, where neighbors are more involved in each other's lives.
"If a member of this family was attacked in Egypt, they would have screamed, yelled, and dozens of people would have interfered to protect them," he said.
But you know what? I am sick in my stomach over professional bloggers and their minions.
I really don't like the rumors and half-truths that spread like a bad disease out there. Five years ago we only had to worry about the Drudge report. Now anyone with a typad or blogspot address is suddenly more credible than a paid journalist.
I read Open Book almost daily because she blogs about some interesting religion related things, and I have decided from the few exchanges we have had on her blog I would probably like her. But this week there's a comment section on her blog that is completely out of control (not her fault--she doesn't write the comments, but I am totally surprised her Christian readership has gone into a full-on assault on Islam because of this story).
If you hadn't read about this in the news yet, last week an entire family (parents and two daughters) of Egyptian Copts were brutally murdered in Jersey City. The police in their news conferences were keeping many details secret, normal police procedure so as not to tip their hand. However, that didn't stop the blogging world from spreading rumors pointing to signs that this was not a robbery but rather religiously motivated. They have all but lynched every Muslim in North Jersey.
Here's what is slated to be in this morning's Newark paper. I have to think that the details here are bonafide, and that the prosecutor's office isn't trying to cover-up the facts so as to bring down the defcon level up there. You can see the denials from the prosecutor listing every possible internet rumor out there. I really keyed in on quotes from relatives in Egypt, who were as quick to blame America's culture of violence as many bloggers were to blame Islam.
In Luxor, Egypt, relatives said they believed religion had nothing to do with the crime.
Milad Ibrahim, Armanious' cousin, blamed "the brutality of American society" and complained that the family's neighbors couldn't interfere to stop the crime.
Hosni Armanious, another close relative, said the killings would not have happened in Egypt, where neighbors are more involved in each other's lives.
"If a member of this family was attacked in Egypt, they would have screamed, yelled, and dozens of people would have interfered to protect them," he said.
Comments
I was thinking about the reaction to this news story just this morning as I prayed the Office. The second reading is a passage from the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican II that talks about God's desire for all to be saved. This is the section that brought the feeding frenzy to mind:
God's plan of salvation embraces those also who acknowledge the Creator. Among these especially the Mohammedans; they profess their faith as the faith of Abraham, and with us they worship the one, merciful God who will judge men on the last day.
My faith has been restored in Amy Welborn herself. I emailed her the Newark paper article and she excerpted the same part I did below in a post this morning.
And the comments section still devloves. This one guy keeps insisting their were public death threats in the name of Allah made against he family, like someone climbed a minaret in Jersey City (!) and demanded a blood ransom paid.
:-)