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Hello,

Blogs are a familiar feature on the internet - where users post content in an accumulating manner, with comments, and search options, etc. They facilitate expression and exploration, and via attached comments, also debate and synthesis.


Reading and
Navigating Blogs

Our blogs are quite powerful. Each writer can post, as is typically the case. Sustainers who have the option can also post, however. All Blogs appear in the blog system, and sometimes also in content boxes the top page of ZNet - and always via the left menu of the top page - and can be found via searches, etc.

Commenting on blogs follows the blogs, attached at the bottom, and blog comments, like all others, are also visible in many places that show comments including in the forum system. In addition, the entire blog system gathers content for everyone - but one can look at the accumulating content in many ways.

  • For example one can look at one writer's efforts - so one is seeing what is effectively a blog system for that one writer, or Sustainer.
  • One can also look at the content by topic, seeing blogs that are tagged as being about a certain topic - or place, as well. Thus, when doing that, it is a blog system about a topic, or a place, with many contributors.
  • One can look at only writer blogs, or only sustainer blogs, as well.
  • One can look at blogs for particular Groups, too.

All this is easily done using the left menu. Searches allow even more variables and refinements.


Creating Blog Posts

If you are a Sustainer with permission, and are logged in, you will see a link in the left menu for you to post a blog - and you can use that to post one, and then tag it various ways (such as with a topic or place, or a group tag), and once you do, it is in the system with you as the author.

You can also use the console button to the left to post a blog - anytime and from anywhere in the site, as long as you are logged in.

Meanwhile, enjoy the blogs - and, by the way, if you are a Free Member or a Sustainer with a ZSpace page, of course you can put one or more content boxes on it, pulling blog links of any sort you may want to filter for, for example, by you or by your friends or by others - and by topic, about places, for groups, etc.

Blogs

583275

Joe Emersberger's Blog

Web Address: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/joeemersberger
Bio: Joe Emersberger was born in 1966 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada where he currently lives and works. He is an engineer and a  member of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union. (More)

All Emersberger Blogs

Venezuela Coverage shows that Corporate Media is a "De-meritocracy"

By Joe Emersberger at Oct 12, 2012


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Does being proven right give someone credibility in the eyes of the corporate press? If so, then Mark Weisbrot, David Rosnick and Erik Sperling should soon become three of the corporate media’s most widely cited sources on Venezuela – at the very least before any elections. 

Venezuelan writer, Francisco Toro, was given a platform by the Guardian and New York Times to grossly exaggerate the likelyhood of a Capriles victory. Now he blasts the polling company, Consultores 21, in this blog post for raising his hopes. 

However, days before the October 7 election that so bitterly disappointed Toro, Erik Serking evaluated the record of Consultores 21. Sperling noted that 

Consultores 21 is "respected," "reputable," and "well-regarded," according to the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, and Washington Post, respectively. Capriles himself has said "personally, I believe in Consultores. I’ve been looking at Consultores’ polls for many years." 

After going over the terrible record the company has established in previous elections, Sperling concluded 

The continued existence of Consultores 21, despite their consistent lack of any semblance of accuracy, demonstrates its purpose as a mere campaign tool for opponents of Chavez. News organizations should be able to uncover and identify this type of blatant bias,… 


Mark Weisbrot’s colleague at CEPR, David Rosnick, went even further than Sperling. In order to factor out bias in the polls, he did a mathematical analysis of the polls based on the record of various pollsters (including Consultores 21) in previous elections. Based on his analysis, he estimated that Chavez’s margin of victory would be 13.7 points. Chavez won by 11 points. 

Unfortunately, the international corporate media is essentially a “de-meritocracy” – as are corporations in general. Competence and honesty do not correlate well with success. In the absence of a major revolt among readers and viewers, the corporate media will not be significantly reformed or, better still, replaced. 
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