Thursday, November 10, 2005

The president, the pope and the J-blogs

I don't believe for a minute that the protests of Jewish bloggers had any impact whatsoever on the parties to this non-agreement, but I do consider it noteworthy that this is the first time I can remember a mainstream Israeli newspaper even mentioning the J-blogs in a political report.

Katsav won't ink David's Tomb deal next week
By GREER FAY CASHMAN

Beit Hanassi has issued a statement categorically denying that President Moshe Katsav will sign a land transfer agreement with Pope Benedict XVI when they meet on November 17 giving the Church control over the room of the Last Supper.

The reports, which have appeared in various media outlets in the world and raised a storm among Jewish bloggers on the Internet, claimed that in return the Vatican would cede to Spain's Jewish community the site of what was once an ancient synagogue in Toledo.

8 comments:

Batya said...

On a personal level, as one of those who have been blogging up a storm against the sale of Mt. Zion to the Vatican, I feel good! It's nice to be recognized as an alternative media. Just too bad we don't get paid.

Cosmic X said...

Interesting observation ZB!

ifyouwillit... said...

They say blogs are the new media, and bloggers the journalists of tomorrow.

Zman Biur said...

Ifyou (or is that Willit),

I'm not sure who "they" are, but they're wrong. Aside from those who are already professional journalists, most bloggers are not journalists. They do not report stories (except rarely) and make no pretenses to objectivity.

Bloggers are diarists or commentators or activists. All of those are important roles - and roles sometimes played by journalists - but if the mainstream media were to disappear overnight leaving us only with bloggers, we would be missing something vital.

Jack said...

Feel our power. Rah!!!!!!!

YMedad said...

Well, review the timeline here
http://www.isfsp.org/updates.html
As one who was involved, I can attest that a small group of bloggers and activists on three continents who are connected by the Internet a) forced the issue on the media; b) got politicans involved; c) badgered President Katav; d) highlighted the invidious networking of venal commercialists who want to turn Mt. Zion into a tourist gold mine and are just trying to take advantage of the Church's desire to wrest Mt. Zion buildings away from Jews among other things, more of which are located there and also here http://www.isfsp.org/zion.html

Zman Biur said...

Winkie,

Thanks for the info. The links are here and here.

It does sound like bloggers were instrumental in breaking this story. Great work!

(That still doesn't mean we're on the way to replacing the conventional media!)

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

Batya and Winkie - Kol HaKavod!

Jameel