Posted on 09/14/2004 10:09:58 PM PDT by kattracks
"The major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur." That observation by the British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead came to mind this past week as I watched Dan Rather struggle violently like a proud old marlin caught on a hook by the young Internet fishermen. Twisting and turning, the great fish only drives the hook in deeper. Plunging and rising, it only exhausts itself -- while the exuberant fishermen carefully manage the line and grab for the powerful hand hook with which they will end the great fish's sea-life.I like a good fish dinner, but I've never cared much for fishing, as I hate to see a noble creature in its death agony. Yet that is what we are observing. This week, it is Dan Rather and CBS News, through their failed effort to prove the legitimacy of their forged Bush National Guard documents, who are being revealed as hapless, helpless victims of an anarchic, swarming, overwhelming Internet blog technology. Soon, other great news institutions inevitably will be revealed for their inadequate capacity to fully report the news.
As in all revolutions, first, the old order must be destroyed, then we will learn both the strengths and the shortcomings of the new order. We got a glimpse of the Internet blogger's strength this past week.
For three quarters of a century until last week, when CBS News had entered a fight it had been an unfair mismatch for its adversary. The credibility, research capacity and gate-keeping monopoly of CBS would overwhelm its victim. But last week, it was breathtaking to see, moment by moment, the Internet blogger's advantage.
CBS did what it has always done: It produced and broadcasted a highly polished segment in which the argument was magisterially framed to their advantage, with the facts favorable to CBS cherry-picked for presentation, while annoying contrary facts were ignored. Carefully edited, prime time quality interviews of their supposedly authoritative expert witnesses were laid in. The whole package was opened, narrated and concluded with dignified contempt for their victim by their star asset, uber-anchor Dan Rather. Enough said. Full stop. Next matter. Long live the King.
Then the bloggers went to work. From the four corners of humanity, experts started deconstructing the "truth" that CBS had presented. Who knew that there are experts who specialize just in the history of IBM selectric typing balls or the kerning capacity of computer printing? (For instance, the carrying of the tail in the letter "y" under the space of the preceding letter, as in the word "my." Typewriters can't do it; computers can.)
As each of these experts added their information to one blog, other bloggers would monitor it, pass it on, add a new fact, reorganize the analysis and synthesize new information. If new information proved wrong, it was corrected by yet another expert in the blogosphere. Mistakes were cheerfully admitted and instantly corrected. People who had filled out such forms 30 years ago added their analysis. Both technical and historic information constantly came in -- ever-increasing the fullness of understanding on the topic. It was like watching time-lapse photography of a cell dividing and growing. It was as if the very mechanism for establishing truth was a living, pulsating force.
CBS had one handwriting expert against the bloggers' legions of subspecialists. It was pathetic. CBS couldn't possibly employ enough producers to identify each and every new specialist they needed, track them down, contact them and get their testimony -- at 11 p.m. or 2 a.m.? The bloggers couldn't find them either. The bloggers' advantage is that the experts find the bloggers. There are just millions of smart people all over the world sitting at their computers, ready to join the quest. The bloggers themselves often add powerful analytical capacity to the process. It is like a reporter having a team of high-powered lawyers helping construct the strongest possible line of reasoning to their reports -- paragraph by paragraph.
The Internet bloggers picked CBS's story as clean as a school of piranhas would pick clean some poor water buffalo that wandered into their river.
The bloggers have had this capacity for a few years now. We had a pre-taste of it in the Trent Lott affair. But what has made the bloggers now a strategic component of national politics is that their readership now includes many senior reporters, editors and producers in the old media. There are enough self-respecting old media journalists who simply cannot see the cornucopia of valid information on the Internet and then ignore it in their reporting.
So, instead of the bloggers only reaching the few million of their readers, they are reaching the larger mass public through the old media. The old media is becoming complicit in its own demise, just as some French aristocrats supported the revolution against their own ancient regime.
Count me a supporter of the revolution. But revolutions are messy affairs, where much of value is lost as well as gained.
The blogsphere approach to debunking false claims is much like the development of open source software like Linux. A world-wide distributed network of intelligence goes to work to solve a problem. It is inherently much faster than a centralized agency with limited resources tackling the same problem. And ideas are much richer and diverse because of the breadth and depth of the talent that is tapped. The talent base is much deeper than any news company could ever assemble.
I was very troubled by CNN tonight. They showed pictures of the documents and said they are causing trouble for Bush without saying the docs are forged and entirely devoid of credibility. They are complicit with CBS.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1215343/posts?page=17#17
The loss of Dan Rather is no great loss in value.
| The loss of Dan Rather is no great loss in value.
It isn't even over yet. We still get to see the part where he resigns to spend more time with his family. I wonder if he'll make it to the end of the week. |
Not bad, not a bad article at all!
The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!
23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
24 His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25 And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.
26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
Somehow, I thought of these verses when I read this column.
Surely CBS will try to pass off the old "on assignment" gig, with Dan getting sent to cover some Saddam Hussein style "hotspot" in their last desperate attempts to change the subject...
The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!
BTTT
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That depends on whether one sees value in the loss of Dan Rather. For me, no ride at Disneyland could compare with the thrill of watching Dan Rather go down the tubes in disgrace, in front of millions of people. This has been an 'E' ticket all the way.