Nealenews is breaking ground in the Canadian blogosphere, and deserves to be commended for it. (For US readers, Brian Neale is the closest thing we have to a Matt Drudge, but he’s better at it- and he deserves to be on everyone’s blogroll.)
In a move reminiscent of Drudge’s link to Powerline’s historic post on what became known as “Rathergate”, he made the unprecedented decision to break wide open the poorest kept secret in Canada with his headline link to the “banned” Brault testimony posted at Captain’s Quarters.
In so doing he catapulted the Canadian blogosphere – and just as importantly, the exponentially more powerful US blogosphere – into the consciousness of thousands of Canadians.
Yesterday Nealenews linked to SDA in a headline about the CBC’s downplay of the Brault testimony. That is the reason the post remained at the top of the page all day. (I don’t know how much traffic he drove here, as I was already under assault with around 100 hits a second coming in by way of an Instalanche. )
Today, he’s linked to Greg Staples well written timeline of events. Greg gently rebukes Jane Taber of the Globe and Mail, for giving Monte Solberg credit a full three days after events began to evolve, but she can be forgiven. She wasn’t in the loop.
I learned of the Canadian Press story in the way that Greg describes. In a flurry of small events that originated at the Shotgun, I came to learn privately the gist of the testimony. I had no idea what to do with it, though, and was beginning to prepare ground in the US when I received a heads up that Ed was likely to run with it. I had already pulled together a background post in preparation for… I wasn’t sure.
A short time later Ed shot me an email to let me know he’d linked to it. Events unfolded very fast. After CTV disclosed the identity of Captains Quarters, the deluge began. In 48 hours nearly 100,000 hits came in, most of them to that post. (The TTLB ecosystem shows that at least 18 others linked it as well, including Wizbang, Malkin and Glenn).
So, that’s the rest of the story. Hopefully the long term effects of the traffic surge will be converted to an expanded audience of Canadian blog readers. That is really up to us, though – to meet the challenge of providing interesting and unique takes on stories here and around the world, to dig out the new ones as they emerge in advance of the mainstream news cycle (the number one strength of the blogosphere, in my opinion) and to entertain – while not taking ourselves too seriously.
I think we’re up to it.
You are putting Delisle on the map, and not just because of all those trucks.Congrats!
Kudos to all. Bravo. Well done.
So, let’s get to work…
Ya, congrates all….
Technical question, if you were to use an IFRAME of the information in your post, your technically not publishing it, but only pulling and displaying the info from the remote server. The banned info never passes from your server to the reader, but instead is pulled from a remote(possible US) server to the reader. Is that a violation of the ban?
I don’t think that linking to a post is “publication”.
The threat to prosecute those linking under the ban was not been even remotely established to be legally sound – but so long as bloggers back away to simple threats, there’s no need to actually prove your case, is there?
Isn’t Canada under a basic “unless we specifically approve it, it’s unapproved” idea?
Stand up and take a bow.
MSM Journalist posting on blog at:
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006636.php
Article by “Double Zero”, aka Richard Gwyn of the MSM.
The blogosphere has influence.
Sorry, link found at http://www.instapundit.com
There’s only one reason Neale News has started linking to bloggers. It’s because I do it on My Blahg News. There’s no need to thank me, considering you wouldn’t anyways even if your life depended on it.
Eventually MSM will come up with a strategy to counter bloggers. Bloggers have already proven the smear campaign doesn’t work, and they have to justify there existence, what will there next move be?
Will they become more responsive and credible, or will they become more vile and vigilante. I guess we wait and see….
In the US they’ve gone into ignore mode, as they aren’t sure how to deal with it, but ultimatly there will be some form of response, lobbying, governance…who knows.
In the end it will be the will of the people that decide who’s going to win, and the odds at this point remain in the bloggers favour, due to the quickness in response, and for the most part, the accuracy of the information.
Kate,
Thanks for the info on Neale. You’re right he’s better than Drudge. The links are fantastic. I’ve not seen anything like it.
Oh, I also visited McClelland’s blog as a result of his post above. If this guy thinks he’s in the same league as Neale, then he’s delusional.
McClelland seems like too much of a caricature to be true. Is he a Conservative Party neo-con operative, a cousin of Joe, or what?
Kate, when you have a chance check out Musing Minds: a US – Canadian blogging partnership. We’re regularily linked to by Lorie Byrd of Polipundit as well as the Anchoress (amongst others – no instalanche yet though). We haven’t done much Canadian blogging. I’ve been waiting for the blogosphere to hit Canada (its so huge south of the border) and I think this media ban on such a gigantic issue was just what the doctor ordered.
Keep up the great blogging!
Cheers,
Jeff at Musing Minds
Further to my last post above, I noticed some folks accessing Musing Minds via Google and Yahoo searches.
It’s here:
http://kasobs.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
Jeff at Musing Minds
How is a Drudge rip-off “better at it”? Because he might link to you?
Drudge was the first person to provide the internet with a news clearinghouse vehicle. His links and stories have been extremely valuable for their timeliness and pertinence, but, as of late, the quality of the Drudge Report has begun to slip. He needs a revamp.
The Neale Report may be newer, sleeker and slicker, but its style is still derivative. Even a flawed Drudge still means more.
In my comment about Neale being “better at it”, I was alluding to the effort he’ seems to be putting into his aggregator at present – as you said, Drudge seems to be slipping a little in enthusiasm – or maybe it’s just a reflection of the news cycle at the moment in the US, after so much high intensity coverage of 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq and then the election… it’s hard not to feel like going there is a bit of a let down.
Hey Robert – why would I thank you? I had no idea you had a “news” site at all. I can barely get your blog to format on my browser, so I very rarely go there. Not your fault of course, but it’s something you might look into. If it’s unreadable at my end, others will be having the same problem – and it’s one I’ve only very, very rarely encountered at other blogs.
Drudge still updates round the clock–and with due respect to Neale for his invaluable site, he doesn’t; his site is a once-a-day resource, generally. We can start comparing him to Drudge after his first billion visits or so.
kinda how i feel about sask…