Posted on 09/17/2004 6:25:26 PM PDT by swilhelm73
I will categorically state that FR had far more influence and pertinence in this story that the simple initial statement by Buckhead's #47 on Howlin's "live thread". I had not heard of the story and came in about 36 hours late, and went back through many of those threads in great detail, and many, many of the comments about the "memos" that were later brought out were suggested by FReepers at one time or another before others caught on to the story.
For one thing, the "style" of the Memos was seriously questioned before #47 by TankerKC on a different thread. R Cook, P.E., had other very lucid comments early on still another thread. I think it was mabelkitty or cristie who started a list of I believe 48 items for further investigation most of which ended up proving anamolous, and that list was well established before the WPost Monday story five days later. Many other examples of FR's contributions to carrying the ball downfield are evident if people look at the more than a hundred threads generated about this.
FR was in the vanguard, and Little Green Footballs and PowerLine were right there with us, and indeed they did a whole lot of ball carrying. Newcomer' article, though, brought a completely DEVASTATING crescendo to destroy any possibility at all that they could have been created without MSWord.
After a time, the lamestream was dragged kicking and screaming along, with all their hedging provisos. Our hedges were dealt with far more quickly than their were. Even Buckhead himself made sure people weren't jumping too fast with cautionary statements, as did other FReepers in pajamas and other garb.
Bottom line: the New Media has arrived.
The FRAUDcasters and Old Media reporters KNOW it, too.
/
I've always considered FreeRepublic.com as the "Mother of all Blogs".
LOL! It is a very good overview. Want some ice water? Try peeling the big media onion down to the truth, that'll make their eyes water. But seriously, I'm a little peavey that ther're trying to make us bloggers.
Rather is finally getting his due, it is about time!!
"I didn't read any further, lest I go mad."
I enjoy being mad almost as I enjoy a witty rejoiner.
IF YOU TRAWL the posting boards at FreeRepublic.com long enough, you'll go mad. Hundreds of voices are shouting, spitting, and clamoring for attention at any given moment.
As someone said awhile ago (I forget who) "FreeRepublic, where political debate is a contact sport." I know this after awile debateing people here liberals are a piece of cake.
Example, you want to debate Sabertooth about immigration policy? Ok but you'd better have your ducks in a row or you're going to be asking "what was the number of that truck."
Did you see this? Excellent slow motion recap of Rathergate... a keeper.
This is the best chronology of RatherGate I've seen, although it starts with a totally unnecessary and prejudicial description of FreeRepublic.com
Is that what's wrong with me?
Ahhhh . . . but did the author define long enough. Is long enough a day? A week? Six weeks? Five years?
You look fine to me. I look fine to me. I think I'll go check the coffeepot . . .
bttt
ping
bttt
I've noticed that as well. You would think that a Big Three network forging documents in attempt to get Bush out of office might be a big story to media watchdogs. But Steve Lovelady wrote this to Romenesko's site:
As to the import of the matter -- if the documents, forged or not, had actually broken new ground, then this might be "one of the biggest media stories in recent memory," as one impassioned e-mailer declared to me. But they didn't; they're not nearly as incriminating as the Ben Barnes interview that proceeded them, or the flurry of reporting last winter and spring on the still un-explained Alabama Absence of young George Bush....
And as for a relative ranking of "big media stories of recent memory" -- is the CBS episode of the magnitude of, say, Jayson Blair deceiving the readers of the New York Times not once, but dozens of times, month after month? Or as big as Jack Kelly deceiving the readers of USA Today not once, but apparently hundreds of times for years on end? Or as big as the systemic failure of the mainstream press to question the fatally flawed rationale for war in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq? Or even as big as the press's inexplicable delay before it finally began investigating the veracity, or lack thereof, of the charges leveled at John Kerry by the swift boat veterans?
Rather is a visible target, as high-visibility as they come, so it's inevitable that the wolves, both inside and outside of the media, begin to salivate as they circle. And if he was conned, that's damaging -- as damaging as, say, Tailgate was to CNN a few years back, or as NBC's rigged explosion of a General Motors car was a few years before that. But come on, guys -- try to get a grip. It's not Watergate. It's not even Rathergate. So far, it's no more than Fontgate.
Unbelievable. These media watchdog sites talk about all sorts of minutia, but there's such little interest in what Dan Rather did. And he even calls honest journalists who investigate the story "wolves"!
What Blogs Have Wrought (Buckhead)
Posted by Truth Table
On News/Activism 09/18/2004 7:23:10 AM PDT · 172 replies · 3,197+ views
Weekly Standard ^ | September 27, 2004 | Jonathan V. Last
What Blogs Have Wrought (FR mentioned)
Posted by swilhelm73
On News/Activism 09/17/2004 6:25:26 PM PDT · 94 replies · 1,769+ views
Weekly Standard ^ | 9/17/04 | Jonathan V. Last
Seems only fair...considering the role CBS played in helping to win the Vietnam War for the Communists.
BTTT
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