Blogoland

Look, Glenn Reynolds can link to any steaming pile of crap he wants to in an attempt to legitimize it (P.S., professor: There was no rioting in Paris). But when he links to this particular dung heap bereft of context and understanding and actual reportage, you have to wonder what he's trying to prove. Look! Bloggers don't know how to report a basic news story like the riots occuring in Australia! Read and remain ignorant:

Several cars have been pulled over by policemen and persons have been arrested. The cars have been attacked by baseball bats. One witnesses is reporting by cell phone from behind bushes and trees. Radio reporters are saying the attackers are attacking randomly and have been identified as people from the heavily Muslim suburb in Lakemba. A mosque is rumored to have been attacked, but that report is not confirmed.

'Groups of people going up and down and terrorizing residents' -- radio reporters. "It's like a movie ... just chasing shadows ... as they move up one end of the street they move out the other ... normally you'd feel safe at the Cronulla police station ... cars smashed in front of the police station ... most of the mob in here has come and gone ... seemingly quiet ... people on the driveway sweeping the glass away ... people being pulled over in front of the Surf Club ... cars pulled over everywhere. No spokesmen to talk to. What really shocked me was the coordination. We got the feeling we were following a line of cars when we saw a convoy. Those guys had baseball bats and got out and smashed cars. Every car facing the street had its windows smashed. That's just what we can see.". -- radio commentator. "It feels like a form of terrorism ... it's like what we saw in France ... multiculturalism died last Sunday"

Ugh. As even a first-hand report this is utterly worthless. What happened? Where? Who did what? Why? Did anyone get badly injured? How many people were there? What was the extent of the damage? All we have is a word salad of nonsense, second-hand rumor and dark insinuation that it's all the Muslim's fault.

Which, of course, would not be the impression at all if you read this:

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Young people riding in vehicles smashed cars and store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, a day after thousands of drunken white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a beach in the same area in one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence.

Thousands of white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a Sydney beach. Later, Arabs retaliated in the suburbs.

Sunday's attack -- apparently prompted by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards -- sparked retaliation by young men of Arab descent in several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police and smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested in hours of violence.

Huh. Also, apparently skinheads were involved in the attacks on Sunday. But you wouldn't know it from reading Reynolds and Pajamas Media.

UPDATE: I have my suspicion that the post excerpted above was authored by Richard Fernandez, a resident of Australia who goes by "Wretchard" at Belmont Club. From what I can tell, our intrepid reporter on the scene in Sydney has done some good old ass-welt keyboard kommading:

Many emergency vehicles are converging on the site of the Sydney beach riots. Radio reporters are suggested a large number of "incidents" are taking place. Car windows have been smashed and bloodied individuals have been sighted by radio reporters. Residents are being advised to stay at home. More as information becomes available.

Several cars have been pulled over by policemen and persons have been arrested. The cars have been attacked by baseball bats. One witnesses is reporting by cell phone from behind bushes and trees.

Now there are reports that the attackers are from the largely Muslim suburb of Lakemba. Unconfirmed reports say the 'youths' are attacking cars and individuals at random. More unconfirmed reports that a mosque has been attacked. These reports are being compiled while listening to live coverage on 2GB. You can listen online at this site.

Almost word for word from what I've excerpted above. In other words, that "Pajamas Media" report that I described earlier was "compiled" not by a guy who was actually on the scene (an impression which PJ Media does nothing to dispel or clarify), but rather some guy who -- we're not sure -- was sitting in his bathrobe listening to the radio and banged out a second-hand report on what he heard.

That's some good reporting.

And, if you read Belmont further, you not only get this thrilling you-are-there-in-my-den reportage, you also get incisive analysis. See, the way Fernandez figures it, it's natural that the white supremacists rioted and beat the crap out of Arab immigrants, because people like Sami al-Arian are not being tortured and shot:

There's a perception, justified or not, among some Anglo Australians that authorities are not cracking down hard enough on Middle Eastern gangs, who are in Western Sydney. Some days ago, a Lebanese gang supposedly attacked lifeguards, who are an iconic part of Australian beach culture. That's a little bit like spitting on the Flag and writing grafitti on the Liberty Bell. So guys revved up by beer decided it wasn't just Miller Time, but payback time.

I have no doubt that some of the Middle Eastern guys beat up were innocent. But that's what happens when perceived political correctness undermines public confidence. We rely on the state to dispense justice, when that is thought to fail then mob rule steps in and punishes innocent and guilty alike.

[...]

I have Muslim or Middle Eastern friends and the way I got it figured is if we don't start cracking down on the Osamas and the Zawahiris and the al-Arians because they are draped in this bogus human rights shield, then the Joe Samadis and the Bill Mansours of the world are gonna start catching it. What's the use of being innocent if the guilty go scot free? One day if a nuke goes off in Sydney or Manhattan all the bets are off.

Priceless and silly and frightening. This guy graduated from Harvard?