Evan Coyne Maloney spots something of significance amidst the rantings and false accusations that make up Nick Coleman's Strib diatribe against Power Line. Coleman said:

Powerline is the biggest link in a daisy chain of right-wing blogs that is assaulting the Mainstream Media while they toot their horns in the service of ... what? The downtrodden? No, that was yesterday's idea of the purpose of journalism.

Maloney responds:

That's funny; I always thought the purpose of journalism was to describe noteworthy events, to tell what happened. No, in Coleman's world, the purpose of the media is to "toot their horns in the service of [...] the downtrodden." Of course, they get to decide who's downtrodden, they get to decide how the downtrodden should be served--it always seems to be through the election of liberals or the support of big government programs--and they get to decide what facts to leave out and what details to spin in order to further their goals.

Coleman has thus acknowledged that he and his MSM brethren practice the "agenda journalism" Hugh Hewitt described in his Weekly Standard column. Coleman's grievance amounts to nothing more than the fact that people who don't share his agenda can now reach the public, thus forcing him, if he hopes to remain relevant, to defend both his agenda and his shoddy work.

HINDROCKET adds: Evan Coyne Maloney wrote us in an email today:

I suspect Coleman is getting far more attention by attacking you than he ever would have in his tiny little outlet. If I were conspiratorially minded, I'd think he's purposefully attacking you all just to get some name recognition.

I'm afraid that's right. Coleman is a little-read, third-rate columnist for a second-tier daily newspaper. We'll probably do a brief round-up of commentary on this contretemps at some point, but otherwise, we'll treat poor Mr. Coleman as we did his equally obscure colleague Jim Boyd earlier this year: leave him in our rear-view mirror.

ONE MORE: Several lawyers have written to offer their services in suing Coleman for defamation. We don't have any present intention to bring such a suit; reader David Tweeten gives one reason why:

Sorry. You'll never be able to prove damages in any libel action against Nick Coleman. Though your case is otherwise rock-solid, somehow, you'd have to prove that Coleman's pathetic article hurt your reputations. Unfortunately for you, the only people whose reputations were damaged were Coleman's and the Star Tribune editorial staff's.

Posted by Paul at 02:24 PM  |    |  

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