Posted on 09/10/2004 8:18:20 AM PDT by TonyInOhio
This is an excerpt that captures the point:
One day. That was all it took for the ranks of citizen journalists to swarm and then thoroughly discredit a story which ran in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and on a network news magazine.
From the Kerry perspective a scandal involving forged documents is a disaster. Kerry had yesterday to get in front of the story and he missed that boat. Instead of being able to stay on message and trying to beat down the post convention pulse which has sent Bush several points ahead in various opinion polls, Kerry is likely to face questions about who was responsible for the forgeries. While it would be astonishing if anyone inside the Kerry organization had a hand in them, it is a question that will be asked. Moreover, the spectacle of Kerry announcing that his campaign organization and the Democratic Party had nothing to do with issuing those documents will occupy several critical news cycles and focus attention on character -- exactly where Kerry does not want to be.
From the perspective of the establishment media, this, too, is a disaster. CBS will have to explain: where did the documents come from? What were the bona fides of the source? Who was the source? Which expert looked at the documents? How closely?
Those are the starter questions.The more basic question is how could a rabble of bloggers, in one day, provide hard core proof of forgery when major news organizations took those documents at face value? Most fundamental of all, why did the New York Times, the Boston Globe and CBS allow themselves to be used for such a transparent attempt to slander President Bush? Out in the blogosphere there are a swarm of people rooting for the answers.
I wonder how Walter feels about his boy wonder these days?
> CBS news should fire Dan Rather ...
Naw, they can keep his mug on the TV as a warning to
the handful of gullible viewers still watching.
"Astonishing"?
excerpt:
"More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night.
CBS kind of whacked the hornet's nest with this "story", didn't they? It may have taken weeks to let the truth filter out on the authenticity of the "documents" quoted, but the first known glaring error was the wrong type font - These were obviously a type font NEVER found on any typwriters from that era. In fact, these were Word document fonts, and the memos were composed on a word processor. Superscripts are a highly unlikely enhancement on typewriters, and certainly not reduced size font superscripts.
American Spectator ran a story last night about the DNC and Kerry Campaign complicity in all this. Evidently the docs were passed around between those two groups before being handed off to CBS.
This, IMO, will eventually come out because CBS will be pressured to reveal the source of the docs. Fox isn't the only MSM outlet chasing this--ABC smells blood as does the Washington Times/Post et.al.
Why did bloggers (and FR in particular) jump on this with a vengeance? Because:
1) We did NOT spend the last few decades watching only the pablum that comes from CBS and other propagandists; and
2) We understand some dimensions of document forensics -- enough to know there is a mountain of evidence in what CBS passed off as aged docs.
I'd look for a flurry of law suits against Freerepublic and other bloggers for using copyrighted materials, etc. The only way that the left can win is to silence the growing majority of people in this country who question their authority and their loyalty.
If Walter likes "the cause" he approves of playing fast and loose with the facts, despite that quaint quote. He just doesn't like it when real investigations uncover dem/lib skullduggery.
I think you are right.
The stonwalling is a delay to claim "a truth" somewhere as they spin a truth.
This will be a crisis when the advertisers start calling. So, who is up to freep a few advertisers about their support for 60 minutes fabrications.
There is a GREAT point inside this article. Kerry and his campaign are sitting silent this morning.
WHY?
Any, and I mean, ANY competant campaigner would be positioning themselves for the fallout from memo-gate. Kerry and his people are completely silent. This is a FATAL delay.
As soon as the word "forgeries" was floated on the networks, Kerry's people should have been staking out their position that "as far as we know, these are genuine." They haven't caveated anything.
Right now, Kerry's camp is THE NUMBER ONE SUPSECT for a forgery. The silence is deafening.
As Sean likes to say...CHECK MATE!
I just heard McAwful going on about how the forgeries didn't matter and the real issue is that the President lied! We're going to have to get these boys up on criminal charges I guess.
The problem with the Ancient Media is that they are so used to people in America only listening to them.
While they have been lulled into their left leaning complacency, the Warriors of the Right have been gaining ground and tunnelling under their positions.
This recent fiasco at CBS has a parallel in history. The battle of the Crater at Petersburg.
Union troops from the mining states tunnelled under the Confederate positions and detonated a huge mine.
However, unlike the Confederate Soldiers, CBS has not been able to and will not be able to mount an effective defense for the follow on forces.
Yep. Exactly. There are numerous examples of this "Pravda in America." AP reports that the audience booed and Bush did nothing to stop it. Lengthy pieces are done regarding Kerry's Vietnam record as contested by the Swiftees, but none of the articles manage to get to the nub of the argument.
None of this is an accident. It is deliberate deception on the American public.
Translation: Establishment-types will push for limitations of free speech on the internet using lawsuits as the vehicle to frighten the little people into silence.
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