Web 2.0 vs. Matt Drudge, 15 Rounds, Bare-Knuckled!

David Weigel | April 2, 2007

Last night the Drudge Report posted an item - now removed from the front page - about jocular CNN reporter Michael Ware hooting and hollering down John McCain at his Baghdad press conference.

During a live press conference in Baghdad, Senators McCain and Graham were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bagdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”

At a, uh, live press conference? Doesn't that mean it was filmed and there's video to corroborate this? There is, and it reveals that Ware didn't do anything* until the end of the presser, when he raised his hand. But CNN didn't endeavor to release that video. It came from a Ware fan site. A few years ago CNN would have kept dithering as the story gathered momentum online, and then finally released the video as the story was dying out. Here's an example of a Web 2.0 technique - readers uploading short videos and sharing them at the speed of thought - defeating a Web 1.0-ish news site that posted a story and let the readers have at it.

Drudge's original story inspired quite a few pro-war sites to blog about Ware's incredible rudeness. All have a little egg on their faces, although none ended up yolkier than Paul Mirengoff:

As Scott notes in his post below, CNN's Michael Ware has denied heckling Sen. McCain during a press conference (he doesn't say whether or not he laughed at McCain). However, Ware's appearance with Soledad O'Brien, as quoted by Scott, is enough to condemn him as unfit to cover the war... Ware's reporting itself constitutes heckling.

So, fake but accurate.

*It's possible that Ware muttered under his breath and the source took offense, but that ain't "heckling."

Comments

|4.2.07 @ 4:20PM|#

Wow, bad week for Senator Straight Talk.

First he gets caught lying about his stroll through Baghdad, and now this.

|4.2.07 @ 4:30PM|#

"Ware [is]...unfit to cover the war... Ware's reporting itself constitutes heckling."

What, specifically, qualifies one to cover a war?
A willingness to swallow everything said by the Good Guys, hook line and sinker? Good bridge-playing skills for those long evenings in the Officers' Club? Blinders?

Good grief.

highnumber|4.2.07 @ 4:30PM|#

What the hell happened? Why should I care?
This is so confusing. McCain lied to Drudge about going to Iraq because he slept with Anderson Cooper? I can't blame McCain. Anderson is dreamy. (sigh...flutter eyelids...)

|4.2.07 @ 4:31PM|#

McCain: ... Was I sick? I felafel!
(crickets chirping)
McCain: (Knocks on mic) Hello? Is this thing on?
Ware: You suck!
McCain: C'mon. Gimme a break. This is my job. Do I come down to your workplace and knock the dick out of your mouth?

|4.2.07 @ 4:31PM|#

How does this reflect badly on McCain?

This only goes to show how little we can trust "An official at the press conference". Maybe this is the same source that came up with phoney Bush Texas national guard memos. Since Ware worked for CNN, it probably seemed the sort of thing he MIGHT have said. Good enough for Drudge / Rather. Roll the presses.

|4.2.07 @ 4:34PM|#

Is Ware the guy with the crooked nose and down-unda accent?

|4.2.07 @ 4:39PM|#

Good thing he didn't heckle Michael Richards.

Guy Montag|4.2.07 @ 4:40PM|#

I thought the 15 rounds was a mention of how many bullets Sen. Webb's assistant, Mr. Thompson, carries in a magazine. Or the number of British service members Iran kidnapped. You know, one of those "news roundup" posts.

Oh well, back to the real news.

croikey! a scandal!|4.2.07 @ 4:40PM|#

"Is Ware the guy with the crooked nose and down-unda accent?"

No that was Steve (you know, Terry's ex)...

|4.2.07 @ 4:46PM|#

Hey, it's the Daily "Hey, Look Over There!"

Thanks, Guy!

GILMORE|4.2.07 @ 5:12PM|#

Holy smokes....

We really are somewhat spoiled here on H&R. Reading Powerline was like.... Kafka... in the original German... through a distored bullhorn... 1" from your ear.

It really makes me sad. Sad that people HAVE to make stories up to fit their preconceptions. (like Reason & Relgion :)

But those people are fucking crazy!

Samples =
That obnoxious drunk Ware should have his credentials yanked - and now!

If more reporters act like Ware soon there will be an infestation of disruptive reporters at all press conferences. This must be stopped now.

What would be great is to get ahold of the congratualtory thank-you emails he gets from his Dem handlers.

There's a reason liberals don't want to hear that the US is winning the war on terror.

Now that Ware has shown his colors and he has been the Imminent CNN reporter of the war in Iraq, how can the public trust anything he says? This escapade calls into question all of his reporting from Iraq.


What I can not understand for the life of me is why the same laws used to imprison Tokyo Rose haven't been used on members of our MSM. They're supporting the enemy by broadcasting and publishing propaganda and vicious lies. Yet the administration does nothing about it.

There is nothing in the first amendment that says journalists are automatically entitled to cover the Presidential press briefings.

|4.2.07 @ 5:20PM|#

...the Imminent CNN reporter of the war...

I kow-tao to that commenter's superior intelligence.

|4.2.07 @ 5:22PM|#

GILMORE,

If you were dumbfounded by reading Powerline comments, try out Little Green Footballs. It's like skin-popping Burrough's into your neck.

|4.2.07 @ 5:33PM|#

My favorite part is Glenn Reynolds' reference to Ware's "sort of" denial, and his clucking about CNN's credibility.

Next on Instapundit: Drudge reports that Kerry's love child is demanding Air Force One to fly around an entourage. Will this turn out to be another embarrassment for the Democrats?

GILMORE|4.2.07 @ 5:48PM|#

...But "injecting" WS Burroughs though would be full of aliens having anal sex with kids intercut with a lecture on Orgone theory and quotes from Rimbaud... :)

I get your point though. My point about Kafka was not the pain of reading him (I like his prose actually), but the Absolute Foreignness of these people (Powerline commenters) as being 'fellow citizens' of the US. Like, in The Trial, you never meet a sympathetic character (except for the woman with the webbed hands)... they're all kind of distant and abstract. What I meant was... they were like, BURN THE WITCH!! TEAR THE HERATIC APART!! They were like a crowd of Somalis ready to drag Mike Ware's body down the street then douse it with a gascan. Over a *rumour*. That. Shit. Is. Scary.

Little Green Footballs I had the pleasure of reading once.

(Johnny Dangerously style)

Once.

|4.2.07 @ 5:51PM|#

"I kow-tao to that commenter's superior intelligence."

I detect an undertoe of malice...

Stevo\'s nemesis|4.2.07 @ 5:51PM|#

tow the line, and all will be fine.

GILMORE|4.2.07 @ 5:52PM|#

ps.

re: one of the Powerline Commenters above...

I didnt even realize how funny it was on first glance

e.g.

There is nothing in the first amendment that says journalists are automatically entitled to cover the Presidential press briefings.

See...?

WHY SHOULD THE PRESIDENT NEED THE "PRESS" AT PRESS-BRIEFINGS??

I mean, hey, you could just mail them what they're supposed to write?

Whats a press briefing without the press? A country without a press? A Ministry of Information?

Gosh god almighty

|4.2.07 @ 5:52PM|#

de stijl,

Where do I send the royalty check for the heckling comeback? I'm gonna be using that one.

Russell|4.2.07 @ 6:55PM|#

The boxed MichaelWare quote on the Drudge comment site is :
"I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."

The most popular response to it is by the industrious 'Roy Rogers' ,(Leader Total Posts: 259 Joined 2007-03-24):
"They need to take this guy for a drive far outside the green zone and let him walk back. "

|4.2.07 @ 7:17PM|#

"My favorite part is Glenn Reynolds' reference to Ware's "sort of" denial, and his clucking about CNN's credibility.

Next on Instapundit: Drudge reports that Kerry's love child is demanding Air Force One to fly around an entourage. Will this turn out to be another embarrassment for the Democrats?"

Yeah, remember when Instapundit was all over the Kenyans marching into Mogadishu. He wasn't linked to any recent stories from there. Wonder why?

|4.2.07 @ 8:43PM|#

The important thing is keep in mind is that heckling McCain is something the liberal media would do, even if they didn't in this one instance. The liberal media have always hated McCain.

|4.2.07 @ 9:02PM|#

The liberal media have always hated McCain.

They have?

Guy Montag|4.2.07 @ 9:28PM|#

The liberal media have always hated McCain.

Except when he says stupid crap that supports their position. Seems like this is the 1% of the time that he didn't.

|4.2.07 @ 11:00PM|#

Seems like this is the 1% of the time that he didn't.

To which "this" are you referring? What did he say that wasn't stupid crap?

|4.3.07 @ 1:36AM|#

Shorter Powerline: "we follow our instructions."

The choreography on this was fascinating to watch, as the right-wing Wurlitzer wound up. Unsourced Drudge story with nice little alcohol-related smear (drawing from an interview given to Bill Maher, for fuck's sake, one year ago); PowerTools repeat and amplify, HotAir and Instapundit jump on board, etc. And by morning, Ware was asked about it. They really are sad little puppets.

The important thing is keep in mind is that heckling McCain is something the liberal media would do, even if they didn't in this one instance.

Ah, yes. And that makes it 'fact-esque'. Also, copulating with goats is something that Max would do, except he hasn't done it tonight.

The whole event and the 'insider' leak suggests just how desperate McCain was not to appear emasculated.

|4.3.07 @ 2:33AM|#

Also, copulating with goats is something that Max would do, except he hasn't done it tonight.

Don't try to tell me what I'm not going to do tonight.

|4.3.07 @ 10:22AM|#

"'The liberal media have always hated McCain.'

They have?"

Sure they have, Isaac. If you look through back issues of the Nation or the American Prospect, or check the archives of Atrios or Daily Kos, you will see that they've been a lot tougher on McCain than the prostrate cheerlears from CNN, ABC, Fox, or any of the major papers.

|4.3.07 @ 10:54AM|#

You should have run the entirety of McCain's remarks.

The part where he insists that there are no troops at the airport, and says he's going to hit al-Sadr with his shoes, was Grade A comedy.

Baghdad John.

|4.3.07 @ 10:56AM|#

joe, from what I've seen at the Nation* or the American Prospect, they hate everyone to the right of Dennis Kucinich.

In their world Bill and Hillary are right-wing servants of Wall Street. And, by the way, I see their point.

However I assumed Max was referring to the "liberal media" in the "conservative" sense: ie the whole media except for Fox News. :)

Actually the Nation is a socialist rag (real socialists as in nationalize the means of production rather than wussy American welfare state "socialists") while I consider the American Prospect liberal (in the mid 20th century American sense).

*I actually subscribed to the Nation years ago. It was kind of a fun read in the early Reagan years, but not anymore.

|4.3.07 @ 11:21AM|#

Isaac B,

I was just busting Max for his use of the term "the liberal media" to describe the MSM.

MRW|4.3.07 @ 1:36PM|#

I read Max as being sarcastic, but maybe my sarcasometer is broken.

|10.3.09 @ 10:55AM|#

I AM THE ILUMINATI