The blogosphere at work

As ever in the United States but I live in hope that our own blogosphere will one day declare its independence from the political and media establishment. Some of us have, of course, and our reward has been complete lack of attention from the rest of the mob.

Over on the other side of the Pond the Gates saga rolls on, having been made into a national issue by the intervention of President Obama, who seems to have decided with his press officer that this would be a good way of diverting attention from his poor performance at the press conference and, more importantly, the Health Nationalization Bill (whatever it may be called this week). The whole thing backfired but that seems to be the pattern with The One these days.

Many people predicted that Sgt Crowley and the members of his team (one black and one Hispanic) will now suffer all sorts of unwanted attention from the President's attack dogs the MSM and local authorities in the way Joe the Plumber did.

Times have changed. Sgt Crowley, though he had voted for Obama, seems to be a savvy sort of guy and he went public very quickly, as did his union who had also supported The One. In fact, it is Professor Gates who is finding that some very unwelcome information is coming out.

I don't suppose he cares very much about evidence of his academic ineptitude such as this piece by Mark Steyn that tells of this Harvard Professor of English as well as Afro-American Studies, who seems to be unaware that Will Shakespeare and Robbie Burns were two different people. There is other evidence that Professor Gates is not terribly well aware of different centuries: sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, who really cares.

The blogger Dan Riehl started investigating something else. Apparently the good professor runs a charity, whose finances leave something to be desired in clarity and transparency. The story was picked up by others on the internet and there has been some movement. The Inkwell Foundation is amending its tax returns for 2007. Even so, eyebrows might be raised about money being paid out to Professor Gates's fiancee.

All the information appeared on various blogs and websites; a great battle is being waged and the media is finding that the days of Walter Cronkite are well and truly over. When do we get to that stage over here?