Posted on 09/21/2004 4:16:55 PM PDT by L.N. Smithee
Posted Sunday, September 27, 2004
Having caught the scent of a juicy story from the MSM (mainstream media) to bite into, the bloggers were waiting to pounce like a pack of hounds behind the butcher shop. On Sept. 7, the day before the CBS broadcast, left-leaning blog talkingpointsmemo.com announced that 60 Minutes was to air "documents that shed light on Bush's guard service or lack thereof." The following afternoon, bloggers at freerepublic.com, a conservative website, began anticipating the coverage with comments such as, "CBS should have to register as a Democrat [campaign organization]." Minutes into the broadcast, another Free Republic blogger (known as a freeper on the site) questioned the authenticity of the CBS documents. A few hours later, yet another offered plausible evidence of fakery: the CBS documents could not have been produced by typewriters available at the time. "These documents are forgeries," said the writer. "This should be pursued aggressively."
The comments were penned by someone known online as Buckhead. And they might have languished had it not been for powerlineblog.com, a well-trafficked right-wing website that linked to Buckhead's claims. The rumblings filtered up to Matt Drudge, who linked to Power Line, setting off a surge of publicity. Soon 500 other blogs had linked to Power Line. Among the assertions: 1970s-era typewriters couldn't have produced the superscript th that appears in the memos (this was later disproved). The next afternoon, both the Washington Post and ABC News carried stories about the postings. The mysterious Buckhead had become a folk hero among red-blogged Americans.
But the mystery didn't last long. As first reported in the Los Angeles Times, Buckhead is Harry MacDougald, 46, a conservative, big-firm lawyer from Atlanta with a history of pugnacious activism. As an advisory-board member for the Southeastern Legal Foundation, he helped write the group's petition to disbar Bill Clinton and worked with former Clinton prosecutor Kenneth Starr to challenge a federal campaign-finance law. As the online avenger Buckhead, he has described Clinton as the "Ozark Caligula." Now identified, MacDougald shuns media attention; as one of his postings claimed, perhaps disingenously: "It wasn't me, it was the swarm."
—With reporting by Mark Coatney and Nathan Thornburgh/New York and Viveca Novak/Washington
I'm pretty sure there was a "scientific" typing element for the IBM Selectric. This was used for mathematical equations in scientific papers and thesis. Some of these tend to have lots of exponents. Never personally used one & don't know for sure what was on it, but it is possible that it might have had small letters for superscripts and subscripts. One would have to change the elements (balls)to do this.
I'M Buckbeak!
Good. I didn't think I was a blogger.
How old media, indeed. Like anyone could own the truth. They're done-in by their own hubris and new technology. An ending history has provided to many a dying breed.
I like that better than pajamarines.
When the MSM catches up to us, THEN I'll worry.
Perfectly true. Excellent point.
Mint ROBIE here. Heh.
(Pardon my junkie FReep station.)
when/where was the "superscript" problem disproved, as this article asserts?
TIME MAG: 'THE BLOGGERS-HOW TO EXPOSE KNOCK DOWN A STORY FELONY' (Print Version Includes Buckhead Pic)
It wasn't actually disproved. The samples of the superscript from other TANG documents does exist but in a completely different typeface than the ones shown on the forgeries.
I'm starting to get the impression that a lot of the MSM still don't know their way around the web. Either that, or they're the kind of folks we see at DU, who are afraid to come to places like FR because they find it unbearably uncomfortable to have their assumptions challenged.
Sooner or later, MSM entities are going to have to figure out that a DNC phone directory and contacts at three liberal think tanks won't cut it any more as a "research department."
Vicious partisans both of them.
This guy, too.
It's still MSM trash, but I'll give them credit for providing the FR link.
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