Posted on 01/14/2005 2:30:43 AM PST by Jim Robinson
What's the newest word getting into the dictionary for the new year? Miriam Webster's editors announce it is "blog" — defined as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer."
So hoist a glass to toast perhaps the most famous "blogger" of 2004 — a brilliant Atlanta lawyer nicknamed "Buckhead." He's the pajama-clad fellow, along with a follow-up host of other Internet truth seekers, who struck a telling blow at anchor Dan Rather and his CBS TV "60 Minutes II" by quickly analyzing and questioning the proportionally spaced fonts used in the so-called National Guard records of George W. Bush.
"Buckhead" — who's real name is Harry MacDougal — spends many a wee hour on his computer surfing the "blogosphere." The Georgian first challenged CBS in a posting on the FreeRepublic.com Web site. "I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old," he wrote barely four hours after Mr. Rather's Sept. 8 show unveiled its "scoop." Within minutes, other bloggers were using their Internet superhighway to further analyze the typefaces — not known to have been used in 1972 typewriters — to reinforce my friend's suspicions and to tweak aggressive news outlets into doing some investigative reporting.
A few days later, as establishment media experts were finally weighing in against a smug and defiant Mr. Rather (who apologized 14 days later), one exultant FreeRepublic.com groupie declared in a succinct posting: "Buckhead for the U.S. Supreme Court."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Bump!
Thanks for the ping, Meek.
Congratulations, all of you.
Buckhead's post is clearly the most famous, but throughout that evening there were pointed comments indicating forgery in the air by many others, most notably TankerKC. There was a second thread running "live" about it that the fellow called something like 'Robert E. Cook, P.E.' posted support for a forgery having occurred, and I think that TankKC was present on that thread at the time, too. I don't know why my ping to him failed here: I must be a bit wrong about his nic, but his comments were in the same very early time frame of the TanKC's first "something wrong with the format" notation to Howlin. And Howlin clearly deserves mention for the key and prompt linking of the memos to the thread for further investigation.
I wish I had been with you all that night, rather than coming in the next day.
Congratulations all, for changing the course of U.S. history, and the election of the President of the U.S., as well as inarguably accelerating the process of the "Changing of the Guard" in the media business.
... P.S.: if anyone is able to get the proper nic for that Robert Cook PE, please ping him for me. He deserves mention with regard to this story, too.
PPS: I agree with Mo1: we are FReepers, not bloggers ...
Bump: agreed.
Someone really ought to at least EMail the author of this article to let him know that although Buckhead #47 is the first most clearly damning comment of that night's discussion, it was by no means the first comment that called those documents probable fakes. I would write him if I had EMail from this location, but I do not. Pointing him to this thread and links in it might give him cause to add a bit to the story on his next writing that would help him let the public understand the process that went on at FR that eve, and that then spread from here at FR into the blogosphere.
Perhaps the Washington Times already monitors this website - evidently quite a few in media and congress do so.
I can't say for sure but I'd be willing to bet the author of this piece is intimately familiar with the bustin' of cbs by Freepers. Just a hunch.
FGS
FR at it's finest bttt. :-)
The key points of the article is that CBS' Rather gets the sack because of the bloggers, foremost of which was buckhead on the Freerepublic. The Freerepublic is the standard for online commentary and opinion --it's fast, intuitive, informative, nothing compares and there're lots of wannabes. Everybody's talking about blogs and freepers.
What I'm saying is that either the public will add "freep" to the general vocabulary or the definition of the word "blog" will change. It happens. King James once said that Westminster Cathedral was "terrible, artificial, and awful." He was praising the cathedral. Now, we say 'terrific' for good and 'terrible' for bad. The same for artful/artificial and awesome/awful. Things change --we just have to get used to not getting used to it.
BTW, you got to really watch your step when ever you quote the King James Bible ;-).
LOLOL!
I think that TankKC was present on that thread at the time, too. I don't know why my ping to him failed here: I must be a bit wrong about his nic .....
< snip >P.S.: if anyone is able to get the proper nic for that Robert Cook PE, please ping him for me. He deserves mention with regard to this story, too.
Post #82, folks.
You're a smart guy and I'm a smart guy and we both agree on the mutability of the English language, but it's not always accurate or smart.
Irregardless.
Inflammable.
Point is, blog is perfectly accurate if we're talking about an online log (journal). It's not accurate if we're talking about a bulletin board, which isn't a log at all.
You're right, and I agree that it's happening. I can't help but resist it, however.
And here I thought perfection was not possible on this mortal plane! (joke) Obviously everyone has the right to determine for his self which definition he considers most accurate; however being understood by others is very different and requires a consensus. Most people consider "irregardless" as being nonstandard. OTOH, I react so badly when I hear people bash "inflammable" that my sinuses become inflamed.
The English language is like the American dollar. They're both mostly used by foreigners who need to deal with other foreigners and our sensibilities are not relevant. Since they're the majority we'll have to see where their censuses goes with "blog" if we want to be understood.
I'll make sure Phil has the straight dope.
After that Rather report that night, I was just upset. I knew it had to be a smear job, a fake. I logged on to FR immediately that night to get some reassurance and some other people's thoughts.
My suspicion was, as discussion of the memo progressed on FR, not a purely technical one. My thought was that no male, living or ever having lived, would have taken all the trouble to count spaces and perfectly center the heading of that memo like the computer/word processors automatically do now. I posted that observation, and I think it was on that particular thread, but it could have been on one of the threads where the same guys were discussing the intricacies of the memo. I do remember Buckhead, Howlin and the bunch were on the same thread, but I can't find my post.
I'm just glad the MSM guys are busted big time. It's way past time. They've been misleading the American people for a very long time, but now they're having to deal with the knowledge that the people aren't quite as stupid as they've been thinking all along. Even their masters of spin and manipulation, like Rather and Koppel, are weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Robt,
Your presense was requested.
;-)
What was the heading of that second live thread? I was on a live thread that night because that Rather report had upset me. I just knew it couldn't be true, and FR was a comfort - especially to immediately see so many debunkers.
I knew I posted on a live thread that night, and some guy answered me, but I couldn't find my post or his reply on the link to post 47 thread.
Indeed. Volley bump!
Poster of the Year
Buckhead and TankerKC
Congratulations Buckhead and TankerKC!
And thank you Howlin for being on the ball.
I am not at the PC now that I have that info on - the threads dealing with the CBiaS FRAUDcast - but I'll look on Monday or Tuesday for it.
FR really needs the ability for us to link to comments a FReeper makes on a certain day. I know that linking such things could be really difficult, but something like providing the ability to jump to a linked list of all the articles posted on a given Day/Hour probably would not be.
The "investigation thread," started after my post, is here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210702/posts
Later on, Howlin compiled a thread for more or less historical purposes that tracked the multiple threads on the subject, and which shows that there were many, many posts questioning the documents before my post. It can be found here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1220090/posts
Regards,
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