Well, here it is, the first report from Joe Wurzelbacher in Israel for PJTV – and it came out more interesting than I expected, if I do say so myself. Joe had quite a day in Sderot, as you will see. He comes under attack from Hamas rockets and from the international media. I could make the obvious joke that the latter is worse, but that’s not really true, is it? Those rockets are lethal.
This first report will probably generate another round of vitriol from the hotheads who commented endlessly in the posts below. But it will be interesting to see if some of them ameliorate their views when confronted with Joe Wurzelbacher as a human being. He’s certainly a nice enough fellow. Is he the greatest reporter since Edward R. Murrow? Of course not. But who was Murrow really? Just another media guy with an opinion. And what is media anyway? Well, there’s the question.
Welcome to the Middle East, Joe!
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15 Comments
1. Lightnin' Hopkins:Before the trolls convulse and flail about, I’ll just say that Joe did okay – and with less umms and ahhs than the Annointed One and Caroline Kennedy!
Cue the angry mob.
Jan 12, 2009 - 8:51 am 2. Lightnin' Hopkins:Joe’s mention of infrastructure being ripped apart to build rockets brought this story to mind:
http://tinyurl.com/9hb3am
Jan 12, 2009 - 9:17 am 3. myna:The old MSM are having a convulsions. They really think they are the real deal. The new breed of media, PJTV, are here to stay to challenge their credibility.
Jan 12, 2009 - 11:32 am 4. Lawrence Kellogg:Roger, neither my MacBook Pro nor my Dell PC will play any PJTV content, and I am registered & paid my $30.
Jan 12, 2009 - 12:35 pm 5. Lawrence Kellogg:Any techno-advice?
You and your readers may wish to sign this:
Jan 12, 2009 - 12:38 pm 6. Roger L Simon:http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=15&Action=View
Lawrence Kellog, the Joe videos are free even to non-subscribers. But… if you are having a problem, log in and hit “support”. Our support folks are very helpful.
Also, this is getting a lot of hits, so may be temp server problem. Don’t know.
Jan 12, 2009 - 12:46 pm 7. frankly don:Hey, if Stuttering John can go from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ to ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ then Joe the Plumber has a bright future ahead him.
Jan 12, 2009 - 2:16 pm 8. Victor Erimita:How dare you send a so-called reporter to Israel who doesn’t hate Israel?
I actually think this is a pretty brilliant move. Joe the Plumber, Like Sarah Palin, is a fairly ordinary American, a “working American,” in fact, in the socialist-derived groupsspeak of the Left, who had the temerity to to speak truth to power. Predictably, the champions of the working class tore him to shreds, as they did Palin. Not only did he question The One, but he didn’t go to an elite college, doesn’t speak in the patterns approved by Campbell Brown, Tina Fey and the other guardians of public speech form, and he actually seems to simply question some of the preposterous axioms the reality-based community takes for granted. It would have been worth sending him just to witness the hilarious apoplexy with which the “professional media” regard him.
But more importantly, it is an eloquent dagger to the heart of what is left of the MSM conceit that it alone determines reality. Unfortunately, the election of a no-achievement zero to the presidency, and the gullibility of the public on issues like global warming and the demonization of Bush, show that the MSM still has enormous, even determinative, power to shape public opinion. But the cracks are in the wall, and Joe the Plumber is the perfect choice to keep pointing out the shallowness of the MSM consensus. I hope he becomes very popular.
Jan 12, 2009 - 2:42 pm 9. Mike_K:I can’t even register from my MacBook, Roger.
Jan 12, 2009 - 3:03 pm 10. Judge Crater:There was a short mention of Joe Wurzelbacher going reporting from Israel on NPR’s Morning edition today. More a bemused, wry note rather than anything serious.
But no mention of PJTV. Per NPR Joe Wurzelbacher is working for “a conservative website.”
One of those “don’t mention the war” Fawlty Towers moments. Can’t let the name of a possible competitor go out on the airways.
Jan 12, 2009 - 3:55 pm 11. Lawrence Kellogg:Kudos to Joe and to PJTV for having the balls to stand up and tell the truth—with a very good camera person, as well. What could have been more vivid than what we saw with Joe? I particularly appreciated what he said about the impact of such an attack on the lives of the children. What MSM reporter ever says anything so perceptive, and, of course, accurate? This was a brilliant idea, and Joe is doing a magnificent and brave job. I’m sorry to say this because I assume he has many grateful plumbing customers, but I hope he changes careers and continues reporting around the country and the world for PJTV. He is absolutely terrific.
Jan 12, 2009 - 4:10 pm 12. Joe Schmoe:That was awesome. Joe was fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like that — a regular person reporting the news. Terrific.
Jan 12, 2009 - 4:28 pm 13. Sissy Willis:It’s the authenticity, stupid
Terrific job!
Jan 12, 2009 - 4:33 pm 14. Cap'n Eddie Ricketyback:Re: 6. Roger L Simon: But… if you are having a problem, log in and hit “support”.
So, the video froze up my browser and trying to X out or hitting “support” resulted in only the little dinging sound, and the only way to get out was through CTRL-ALT-DELETE and shutting it down with the Task Manager, which of course shut down all my browser windows requiring me to start over. Not the first time that has happened with one of those videos, by the way.
Just thought that info may be of some use to you.
Jan 12, 2009 - 7:37 pm 15. Belladonna Rogers:A stroke of genius to send Joe. He has everything a good reporter needs: intellectual and emotional intelligence, the ability to ask questions and actually listen to the answers, the capacity to be a credible eye witness and to communicate his observations with clarity. Not to mention courage and grace under fire. You saw how he gallantly and bravely herded others into the shelter before entering it himself. I was fascinated when he was describing the heinous (and, fortunately, failed) Hamas attempt to murder elementary school children and their parents, when he noted that the students had just returned from a three-week hiatus. He paused momentarily, and then added that they’d been on a break from school. I thought that was terrific—that he realized mid-sentence that there may be viewers unfamiliar with the meaning of “hiatus” and so he clarified what it meant. He is so real, he just makes all the MSM correspondents look like cardboard stand-ups reading their biased, scripted, slanted copy without giving any background whatsoever. With the MSM, it is as if the world began today: no sense of history or context. Joe gets it, and he presents it with clarity, decency and truth. What more could anyone want?
Jan 12, 2009 - 8:06 pm