Posted on 09/14/2004 5:52:18 PM PDT by Rokke
If anyone missed BobJ on Paula Zahn's show, they missed a pivotal point in the ascendancy of FreeRepublic. He kicked ass during his interview discussing the CBS forgeries. Absolutely TOP NOTCH!!!
Outstanding, stayed up an hour past my planned bedtime to see you..
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: With each election cycle, the World Wide Web plays a larger role in U.S. politics. And the big story this year is the rise of the weblogs. They are known as blogs for short, a kind of combination diary, news roundup and gossip sheet posted for everyone to read.
And technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg shows us just how bloggers have changed politics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By 1996, most candidates had their own Web sites. In 2000, John McCain inaugurated online fund-raising. And 2004 seems to be the year of the blog.
HOWARD FINBERG, POYNTER INSTITUTE: They're igniting a great deal of enthusiasm and energy among partisans, at least in -- among some of the very political blogs out there.
SIEBERG: Howard Dean's young edgy supporters used blogs, or weblogs, to organize and raise millions in cash during the primaries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It is cool!
SIEBERG: Web logs for techies, for the media, or just for fun, now number in the millions. The technology needed to set up a blog is as easy as one, two, three, and political blogs often have links galore, ads galore, and, hey, you can even get the t-shirt.
MARKOS MOULITSAS, DAILYKOS.COM: The blogs is a 24/7 endeavor. I actually dream what I want to blog the next day.
SIEBERG: Markos Moulitsas' site, DailyKos.com, works closely with the Democratic Party.
MOULITSAS: The whole point of blogging is this notion of participatory democracy. And I think people really appreciate this notion that they're partners in the endeavor. It's not just them taking marching orders, but it's actually them being asked for their opinions and their thoughts and their suggestions on how to proceed.
SIEBERG: Glenn Reynolds, another superstar among political bloggers, has no official party ties. The usually described as conservative law professor and author of InstaPundit.com says blogs get people thinking and doing.
GLENN REYNOLDS, INSTAPUNDIT.COM: You can sit in your living room and shout at your television, which makes you feel helpless. You can turn off the television, which is no great solution, or you can try to do better yourself. And I think that's a very constructive response.
SIEBERG: Some lean slightly right or left. Others lean really right or left. And candidates even have their own blogs.
This blogosphere is helping reshape campaigns and campaign coverage.
(on camera): In fact, at this year's political conventions, bloggers were given press credentials for the first time. Many hoped it would boost online traffic and maybe even generate some cash. But for the most part that hasn't happened.
Regardless, most political bloggers say they do it on principle, not for the profits.
MOULITSAS: We are making a real difference. It's just going to grow as the influence of the blogs grow.
SIEBERG: Instapundit and Daily Kos usually rank at the top in the blog influence quotient. But how do you sift through those other, oh, 140,000-plus essay, diaries and cheap shots?
FINBERG: There's a lot of silliness out there, and there's a lot of -- there's a lot of ranting out there. And I think that's going to be the challenge for both political bloggers and other forms of bloggers, is to get heard over the din.
SIEBERG: So what's it like being among the top dogs of the political blogs?
REYNOLDS: Being a rock star in the blogging world is kind of like being a champion bowler. You're a star to a very small segment of people. Sadly, it doesn't come with limos.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And the latest example of a blog affecting politics happened just last week after the "60 Minutes" story on President Bush's National Guard service broke.
A message on FreeRepublic.com said typewriters from the 1970s couldn't have produced the document CBS used. The anonymous writer known only as Buckhead (ph) concluded the documents were forgeries.
CBS stands by its story tonight.
Joining me from Los Angeles is Bob Johnson. He is the spokesman of FreeRepublic.com, and in Knoxville, Tennessee tonight, Glenn Reynolds, the blogger whom we met in Daniel Sieberg's report.
Welcome, gentlemen.
Bob, I want to start with you this evening. Tell us how quickly this blog site seized the "60 Minutes" story and then the questions about these documents possibly being forged started -- ensued?
BOB JOHNSON, FREEREPUBLIC.COM: Well, first of all, Free Republic is not technically a blog. It's a bulletin board, although they serve the same purpose.
The "60 Minutes" program started off at 8 p.m., and by 8:19 we had the first comment from a participant of Free Republic about the comments that "60 Minutes" and Dan Rather had referenced from those memos not looking right. That was by a poster by the name of Tanker K.C.
During the next hour or so, there were several other comments pertaining to the same thing from people that either had experience in the military or experience with typefaces and documents, who indicated that what CBS or Dan Rather presented didn't look right.
Now, at 10:30, CBS had put copies of those documents up on their web site, and over the next hour, they started to be analyzed by members of Free Republic. And approximately at 10:59 was the famous post by Buckhead (ph), indicating that he felt that the -- that the memos that CBS had produced were a hoax.
ZAHN: All right. So Glenn, help us understand, then, tonight why it is that bloggers were the ones who uncovered the inconsistencies or at least the suggestions of inconsistencies in these documents?
REYNOLDS: A couple of reasons. Bloggers are inherently obsessive compulsive, I think, and have an eye for detail. And most people are pretty web savvy, which means they kind of know things about fonts and computers.
And when you show them a document that looks like it came right out of somebody's laser printer in the year 2004 and say it was typed in the year 1972, they tend to be pretty skeptical.
And I think the blog format lets you present visual evidence really well. And in fact, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs used this wonderful blinking overlay that kept alternating back and forth between the CBS document and something he had just done on his computer using Microsoft Word, and they looked the same. I think that was very powerful.
ZAHN: Bob, let's come back to the issue of where the story stands tonight. We mentioned early on in the broadcast it was Laura Bush who increased some of the noise surrounding it, suggesting it was her belief that she thinks these documents were forged in blogland.
Where does it stand tonight?
JOHNSON: Well, personally, Paula, I think that the issue of whether or not these documents are fraudulent has passed. We've passed that point, and the horse is already out of the barn.
The only point right now, the question that we have is why Dan Rather and "60 Minutes" and CBS News would put their reputation and their credibility at stake to prop up a sagging John Kerry campaign instead of just telling the American people the truth.
ZAHN: All right. Glen Reynolds, you get the six-second last word here.
REYNOLDS: I think that CBS has been blogged to death, and I think they should admit their error.
ZAHN: And we should add on to the tail end of this report, once again, CBS at this hour continues to stand by its reporting.
Bob Johnson, Glenn Reynolds, thanks to both of you.
JOHNSON: Thank you for having us.
REYNOLDS: Thank you.
ZAHN: Our pleasure.
ping for later read.
Fabulous work!
I just watched it. Money shot indeed! Fantastic! "The question is, why would CBS put their reputation on the line to prop up a sagging John Kerry campaign?" !!!Zot!!!
Bump
Plaudits!
I don't know about being talented, but thanks for such nice compliments. I really appreciate it. More than you know.
Thanks for the link help. I'm just now getting back on the computer. I appreciate it ma'am.
You dress right up, with cool enough duds.
Tell us that you came on the set wearing bunny slippers!
Another thing, I noticed that there was "kinship" between Bob and the other Blogger (I presume that he was from a Liberal Blog).
THIS IS GREAT! the TRUTH OVER PARTENSHIP (too bad the liberal media can't understand that) NICE JOB GUYS!
I agree; Bob came across as articulate, composed and prepared. Excellent job.
Don't have "bunny slippers' but I had my Garfield's with me...almost wore them into the studio. BTW - I talked with the Instapundit rep who was going to be on prior to the show(he got bumped) to see if we should coordinate our late evening wear...heheh.
Again, thank you all for the kind words. However, it wasn't me, FR makes everyone a well informed insta-pundit.
Bravo! Well done, Bob J.
Bob J and Glenn both handled this interview very well - came across with great credibility - were able to explain things so the avg. viewer could get "it". Great job, gentlemen!!!
I knew it. They've looked a little saggy lately.
Sounds series...hughly so!! Way to go, BobJ!!
FReegards...MUD
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