Delving Deeper Into Countering

Countering in the Blogs I’m Following:
I could not find a good counter in Hot Air today, but I found a short one on Powerline. The post is in response to an article by NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Friedman wrote an editorial on Sunday arguing why America should abandon the Middle East Peace Negotiations and focus on problems at home. In three short paragraphs, Powerline tears Friedman’s article apart. In the first paragraph, Powerline summarizes Friedman’s argument while making a few editorial comments. The paragraph also provides a link to the original article. In the second paragraph, it uncovers the value of Friedman’s reasoning or, rather, uncovers values that Friedman does not say outright. Powerline agrees with Friedman that the Peace Negotiations are going nowhere. The counter is made in the second and last paragraphs where Powerline states that Friedman chose to ignore a major factor in his argument—the Palestinians. The US wants to help the Palestinians but the Palestinians do not appear to want to negotiate. Although the counter does not exactly dissent, the article does suggest that Friedman was right but for different reasons than he states in his article.

Countering My Blog: News is Not Like Making a Pizza
What if anyone could read anything and read anything into it? That is the way things are now. With the invention of the Internet, anyone can access anything at anytime. But how can ordinary people understand issues beyond their expertise, like global politics or national Health Care? Newspapers once provided the information, the knowledge, and the expertise to ordinary Americans. Americans knew what was happening in the world, what was important, and which positions on an issue were worth considering. In other words, the way it was was really better!

(Oops, I’ve slipped into hyperbole! This is not easy to do!)