Posted on 11/30/2004 9:42:30 AM PST by HighWheeler
Seldom in the course of a Presidential campaign does a media drama upstage the election itself, but for a short while in September, Americans tuned out politics and tuned in to "The Decline and Fall of Dan Rather."
The drama began when CBS posted forged National Guard documents on its Web site and, that same evening, an attentive "Freeper" (a regular at the conservative FreeRepublic.com Internet site) named Buckhead raised suspicions of fraud.
From there, intrepid bloggers Powerlineblog.com and Little Green Footballs, the Woodward and Bernstein of Rathergate, began to document the mounting signs of forgery.
By the next afternoon, the country was abuzz. Rather and his supporters denounced those who questioned the credibility of the anti-Bush memos as "partisan political ideological forces." Former CBS News executive Jonathan Klein infamously dismissed the truth-telling bloggers as "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing what he thinks." But thanks to the cyber sleuths, it was soon obvious that the memos were phony.
Rather then found himself under siege from the most unlikely of sources--other members of the mainstream media. ABC News and the Washington Post catalogued the anchor's duplicity: CBS had ignored warnings from its own experts, failed to interview relevant sources, and discarded any evidence that contradicted its preconceived anti-Bush version of events.
At one point, CBS attempted an our-evidence-is-false-but-our-attack-is-accurate defense. Rather suggested it was not he, but the President, who should answer tough questions. Eventually, CBS offered a half-hearted apology. But the damage was done. Rather's credibility was destroyed.
None of this would have happened just a few years earlier. As Glenn Reynolds, blogging host of Instapundit.com and law professor at the University of Tennessee, told one reporter, "CBS would have flashed the documents on TV for a few seconds and no one would have seen them again. Even the people with doubts would have assumed that CBS had done its legwork, as we did for years."
In the days when the establishment media had an iron grip on public discourse, it was almost impossible to challenge their biases. Dan Rather and company insisted they were simply objective observers, exemplary public servants untainted by political agenda or shoddy research. Now the public knows otherwise.
Are many bloggers politically motivated? Of course. But, unlike CBS, they are honest about it. And they must defend their opinions in a fiercely competitive marketplace of ideas.
That was rarely the case with the elite media, a closed and intellectually homogeneous priesthood whose members came to believe their opinions were Gospel truth.
This was not a complicated case: Within hours of CBS's airing of the story, some gifted amateurs in Middle-western suburbs had proven that the documents could not be genuine. CBS had enthusiastically embraced the flimsy claims that Bush had failed to live up to his National Guard duties simply because most everyone in the elite-media circle wanted to believe them.
Or, as the Los Angeles Times' editorial page pontificated: "CBS's real error was trying to prove a point that didn't need to be proved."
But as "The Decline and Fall of Dan Rather" showed, reporters who derive evidence from their political conclusions, instead of the other way around, won't have free rein anymore. Thanks to blogs and other "new" media, the prejudices of the old media princes will no longer go unquestioned.
It's about time.
What country's flag is that in the DU post? (LOL)
From the info in the phone transcripts, he sure seemed to be handy with a vibrator. He should be reminded daily until he reveals his detailed analysis of the SBV details of sKERRY that have yet to be refuted.
Thanks for the info. But you are right - he didn't say much.
I believe you are spot on.
You are a hero!
Thanks - I never saw the show -
The sheer effrontery of the attempt to pass the docs off was even worse than i thought, if you could see that the format was wrong immediately. Rather and 60 Minutes total disregard, if not contempt, for people and things relating to the military life is the real underlying story from debacle, if they thought that they could fool everyone.
Let's not forget TankerKC's role in this ... Tanker was the first to post a suspicion that something wasn't right about the documents. Buckhead was the first to provide specifics and I don't mean to take anything away from his MSM-shattering post. Still, TankerKC sounded the call before the docs were available from SeeBS for the forensic analysis that made Buckhead famous. Does anyone have a link handy to the original live thread put up by Howlin?
Not entirely true:
NBC's famous falsification of their report on Chevy pickup truck fuel tank fires was discovered pretty readily, and well before the Internet and FreeRepublic.
And in fact the ensuing brouhaha served to completely obscure (as Chevrolet no doubt intended) the fact that their fuel tank location prior to '88, OUTSIDE the frame rails of the truck, was not only hazardous, and resulted in numerous deadly fires, but was in fact laughed about within the other auto companies.
Thanks!
We have our eye on the evil CBS eye!
Very true!
Bump
BTTT!
If "Past History" is ANY "Predictor;" They Will!
SO BE IT!!
As Long as "The Left" assumes that the "Rest of the Country is STUPID;" there is NO POSSIBILITY that "The Left" will EVER "Influence" the Course of our Nation!!
AMERICANS are FAR MORE INTELLIGENT than we are "Given Credit For" by "The Left!"
You guys haven't heard the network's investigation yet.
Let's see what they say.
Dead on!
Read Peggy Noonan's piece about Rather.
it is a classic Puff piece where She tries to excuse his crappy smear job...Saying Dan is a real Patriot and that he was corrupted by the Established Media Liberals.
Bull! Peggy...Dan Rather is the Establishment Media!
Well....Not any more Danny Boy! Not any More.
A-h-h-h-h, Y-e-s! Do you mind if I indulge and repost a delicious part?
"ABC News and the Washington Post catalogued the anchor's duplicity: CBS had ignored warnings from its own experts, failed to interview relevant sources, and discarded any evidence that contradicted its preconceived anti-Bush version of events."
A-h-h-h-h, Y-e-s!!! " How SWEET IT IS!!!!!!"
"And the sooner these old media losers learn this the better."
I think their behaviour since the election shows clearly that they'll need to be taken to the woodshed quite a few more times before they learn the lesson.
Rather was not honest with the public. He stayed with the story too long because he was a stubborn arrogant person who couldn't face the truth. Now, we expect him to report the truth each night? His credibility has been damaged.
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