Ghost of a flea

Traffic report

You know you are a blogger when...

...you get as much traffic in a day as you do in a month and all you can think is, "And not one new link!" (I make joke.)

The culprit behind the "denial of service attack" on the Flea was a high ranking in search results for Nick Berg at MSN (and that link will take you to my first post on the subject). The Flea welcomed 24676 unique visitors by 9:10 p.m. last night. I will only know what yesterday's total was when my Awstats have finished updating to give the results through to midnight.

So what to make of this? My email conversation with Debbye mirrors the thoughts of other polibloggers. It is my sense that people are furious with establishment media for choosing to abandon the memory of Nick Berg in favour of a wall of politicized coverage of Abu Ghraib and, in so doing, cede the meaning of the story to al Qaeda in the service of cheap domestic political advantage. The internet means we no longer have to accept the choices of news editors. The era of the gatekeepers has ended.

People are sickened and enraged at the slaughter of a free man and want to learn more about its circumstances, consider its implications and find some way to engage with this atrocity in meaningfully. It is a revelation of sorts to observe how cathartic it is to leave a comment at a weblog. We are so used to being passive in relation to television and print media. This new publishing context gives all of us the chance to do more than yell at the television set. We experience an overwhelming urge to say something, to do something, to respond to the event. To contribute something if only, at first, a cry of horror or an expression of outrage.

We have been called chickenhawks by people who thought they had a corner on indignation. Consider this latest intervention of the blogosphere in public life. Now consider that the only way for the jihadists to win this war is to demoralize us and turn the agenda over to their useful idiots in the boardrooms and on the streets. We cannot kid ourselves. This is not the pointy end of things but we are all on the front line.

And then... 26732 unique visitors on Friday, May 14. That is well over the usual total for a month. With any luck some of them will keep coming back... If you are one of those new visitors to the Flea I hope you will take a chance to look around. I specialize in diversions for those Monday morning coffee breaks on the internet. Leave a comment and say hi!

And then... Seldom Sober has more to say on the subject (via Mader Blog).

And then... That "front line" statement may seem like hyperbole. Take a look at what the deranged remnants of the "left" have to say about Nick Berg's murder. This is a war of ideas and this is what we are up against. And this.

And then... Back down to 2500 uniques today. That is more like it.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at May 15, 2004 09:30 AM

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? The Berg Phenomenon from Being American in T.O.
May 16 - The U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, spoke out on something that, I suspect, is in many hearts and minds: Arab world should be more outraged about the murder of Nick Berg. During an interview on Meet the... [Read More]

Tracked on May 16, 2004 06:03 PM

Comments

Posted by: Gordon at May 15, 2004 10:49 AM

Posted by: urthshu at May 15, 2004 01:45 PM

Posted by: urthshu at May 15, 2004 01:46 PM

Posted by: Flea at May 15, 2004 02:03 PM

Posted by: Kate at May 16, 2004 05:11 PM

Posted by: SS at May 16, 2004 07:29 PM