Posted on 09/23/2004 12:41:45 PM PDT by Screaming Eagle Red Leg
Rather's Game Is Over
by L. Brent Bozell III September 21, 2004
The jig is up. The game is over. CBS tried to energize the country into voting against President Bush by highlighting forged documents it said would prove Bush’s failure to serve honorably in the Texas Air National Guard. The smoking gun went up in smoke. Once caught, CBS and Dan Rather could have responded with a simple apology. Instead, they went ballistic – and now mus pay the price for their defiance.
For more than a week, Dan Rather responded like a cornered politician, blaming a vast right-wing conspiracy of "partisan political activists" for unfairly trying to change the subject from Bush’s alleged misdeeds to CBS’s increasingly obvious misdeeds.
In an interview with USA Today, Rather became seriously overwrought, charging that his "partisan" critics want him....dead? What? Look at Rather’s glimpse inside the conservative mind, as he sees it and decrees it: "Because he won’t report it our way, we’re going to hang something bad around his neck and choke him with it, check him out of existence if we can, if not, make him feel great pain."
Rather’s journalistic defenses weren’t any more effective than his political attacks. First, CBS cited handwriting expert Marcel Matley and Gen. Bobby Hodges to vouch for its documents. But soon, Gen. Hodges had something else to say on the matter: CBS never showed him the documents, and when he finally did see them, he said they were forgeries. Matley also contradicted CBS, maintaining he could not authenticate the documents, because they’re copies. The widow and son of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, the supposed author of the phony memos, also denounced the documents as fake. The supposed superior pressing on Killian as described in the memos had retired 18 months earlier.
Innumerable news outlets easily found the inconsistencies and untruths within days – even hours – yet CBS, which claims it spent five years on the story, found....nothing wrong?
The real turning point of the Rathergate scandal came when ABC interviewed two document authenticators hired by CBS who said they warned CBS just days before the offending segment aired that they found "red flags" in the documents. The "honest mistake" defense was dead. CBS was now outed as complicit in this very ugly plot.
None of these developments were allowed inside Dan Rather’s hermetically sealed news bubble in his on-air defenses on September 10 and September 14. The ultimate insult to the viewing public came on the next edition of "60 Minutes," a week after CBS aired the original fraud. The only guest was Marian Carr Knox, a secretary and typist for Lt. Col. Killian. The new CBS line, manufactured after the network flew Mrs. Knox to New York for a sit-down with Rather: Here’s a single guest on camera who says our procured documents are phony, but she says the substance of them are true. And since that’s all that counts, we continue to stand by our story.
What a complete dodge. A fake is a fake. Journalism schools don’t teach that it’s okay to fake a document to smoke out a larger "truth." (Would CBS endorse police departments planting evidence on criminal suspects who they believe are guilty for the larger "truth"?)
They may still pretend to dismiss conservative critics, but CBS and others will probably pay the most attention to the bottom line, and that broadcast news ratings meltdown continues. In 2001, the American Journalism Review reported the "CBS Evening News" lost half its viewership from 1981 to 2001. Last week, the show averaged 6.7 million viewers, which is still looks powerful next to everyday cable news ratings, but hardly represents the old hegemony of the Big Three over the political process.
When I titled my book "Weapons of Mass Distraction: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media," I had no idea Dan Rather and CBS would provide such a blatant show-and-tell to prove my point. In its early days, the Big Three ruled the roost, and critics were treated like gnats, a small annoyance, easily ignored.
After decades of liberal media arrogance and abuse, a conservative media counterculture has arisen in cable news, talk radio, and the Internet. The conservative counterculture buzzes daily about the misinformation the liberal media tries to feed the people. Media accountability to their audience is now coming directly from the audience. Democracy has arrived at the CBS door. No wonder Dan Rather came unglued.
I'm a big fan of Bozell. I love the way the RAT media hates him and never misses a chance to insult him.
Rather still maintains the documents cannot be authenticated, when indeed they can be. They are 100% authentic forgeries, and it is proovable from the copies beyond any doubt.
Hey, quit making fun of Danny and SeeBS!!! Danny and Mary found the foremost document expert in the country. I mean, why use a retired FBI agent with 20-25 years experience when you can use a librarian who took a correspondence course?
Works for me as long as the "something" is a good stiff rope with about a 5 fall.
Ping
Is a psychiatric exam in order here? How much longer before SeeBS cuts him loose?
How would she know? Was it standard practice for Killian to discuss such personal information about Guardsmen with his secretary?
If BLather is gone, will BroCow and Jennings be far behind?
Typical moronic Leftist drivel. The authenticity of the documents confers legitimacy on the charges, not the other way around. If the documents are fake, by definition they cannot be "true" in the sense that they are an accurate representation of Bush's Guard service.
"They are 100% authentic forgeries"
LOL!! And .. I want to know who the forger is!
My vote for forger would go to Terrence McAuliffe. In normal everyday speech Terry really likes to use the word "Sugarcoat".
Unless the Justice Department indicts Mr Rather for 'fraud in an attempt to affect the outcome of a US election', this story will be forgotten just as the 'Sandy Berger, I will steal any damn document that I want to' did.
Oooooh! That's interesting!
I don't think McAuliffe is smart enough to make stupid forgeries.
I wouldn't think a psychiatric exam was necessary at this point. Seems obvious to everyone not on the left that Rather is certifiable.
I would doubt we'll see him after the end of this year.
Good point.
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