Posted on 05/01/2010 9:08:11 AM PDT by Notwithstanding
Helen Thomas simply longs for the days when reporters and pundits could report spin, lies and opinion as fact and were never held accountable outside of page A-16 retractions.
The new media’s finest moment came when in 2004 CBS’s Dan Rather attempted to influence a national election (much like his predecessor Walter Cronkite did with the Vietnam War after the Tet Offensive), but unlike then, now there is a new media filled with grassroots activists who were going to hold the old media accountable and one of those activists on the Conservative Site Free-Republic under the handle “Buckhead,” was able to expose Rather’s “official documents” concerning Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard as forgeries. Rather eventually lost his job as a result.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigjournalism.com ...
Unfortunately, in coming back to this topic, I caught a glimpse of (retches a little) a *picture*...
Agreed ... that’s why the bag-obscuring-face is perfect! (Maybe it should be a triple bag — one for her face, one for ours, and one for the dog so he doesn’t howl :-) )
I remember that after it aired on the East Coast people IMMEDIATELY suspected a forgery due in part to the “style” of the memo — a signature on the wrong side, etc...
And then calls out to FReepers on the West Coast to tape the show for stills and such... What a night that was. One of the more memorable ones, and certainly one of the most satisfying as most of the other memorable nights include tragedies (like OU, and Katrina...). Don’t recall that I posted on the discussion thread, but i sure do remember lurking on it! LOL
That’s for sure... Took them long enough to take him off the air, didn’t it?
This is the thread I remember - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210702/posts - the one Howlin put up to keep everything being researched in one place... It includes a copy of Buckhead’s post, too.
[Outlaw woman - you may be interested in the “Live” thread that FReepers were posting on during the airing of the 60 minutes episode itself. The link is in this post. It could probably give you a pretty good feel of what was going on here at FR that night. :) You could “re-live” it! LOL]
I was wrong on that last post to you, twelveoftwenty and onyx. — It was the LIVE thread by Howlin I was on - where the calls came for West Coasters to tape it, and TankerKC was the FReeper who I believe first raised the alarm over the docs regarding the justification of the text...
Live Thread: Ben Barnes and CBS Attempt Another Bush Smear (60 Minutes)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210516/posts
“To: Howlin
WE NEED TO SEE THOSE MEMOS AGAIN!
They are not in the style that we used when I came in to the USAF. They looked like the style and format we started using about 12 years ago (1992). Our signature blocks were left justified, now they are rigth of center...like the ones they just showed.
Can we get a copy of those memos?
107 posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 7:19:00 PM by TankerKC (R.I.P. Spc Trevor A. Win’E American Hero) “
Over the course of the next few hours many were looking into it.
However, it was FReeper Buckhead’s expertise regarding typesetting that really clinched it all though... They couldn’t dismiss that simple truth! It was indeed, the “Smoking Gun”!
Ditto :)
I second that. I read that thread either the same night, or early the next morning. Buckhead's post made enormous sense to me, as someone who had been around the military and seen lots of typewritten and carbon papered documents, and who also had joined the microcomputer revolution fairly early (1982), and therefore had seen the development of printing technologies first hand. Microspaced documents simply didn't exist outside of typeset books and newspapers in the era of the Rathergate forgeries.
Buckhead's post was a serious "this nails it!" moment, and the analyses that came out in the following days, including the animated gif posted above in this thread, were nothing but piling on the evidence for a case that had been completely made in that first post to anyone with the proper background and any sense. By the way, Rather should have had that background, so we see what he was lacking.
I agree! I also didn’t know the Smithsonian was putting together such an exhibit — sounds like it will be fascinating though!
The “live” reporting here at FR - before anything known as “Twitter” came along, and definitely filled with many more important details than any “Tweets” could hope to makes FR the ‘go-to’ site for all Real-Time Current Events (IMHO).
FR: The “Winner and Undisputed Champion” for Live and Breaking News Coverage on the ‘Net! We’ve got “reporters” and experts from all over the world as part of our community. There is no news organization that can compare with what we do here because we are the “real-deal” when it comes to finding the truth... [Again, that’s JMHO]
[Did you know that the Library of Congress purchased all the “public” tweets to archive from the inception of Twitter up until about a month ago? Seems like a really big and needless expense - not that I know how much WE all paid for them...]
OK, I just noticed in that pic he’s wearing a FReeper “badge”... So it’s not EXACTLY the original screen-shot, but a photoshopped screen shot! LOL [I got it through a google image & site sarch of FR on “Credit where credit is due” LOL]
I just wanted to thank you for providing the link on the 60 minutes gaffe. I went through it and it was fascinating! The ‘archived’ threads on here are absolutely invaluable. If you haven’t ever done so, pull up the thread on 9/11, people were posting that day and it’s truly gripping. Anyway, this ty is a bit late but wanted to send it anyway.
Have a great weekend.
The complete story of RatherGate is available here, for those who may not have seen it.
You’re very welcome! I agree with you about the 9/11 thread as well. It’s a very good thread to remember when the anniversary of that horrific day comes around, IMHO.
Another thread that is more helpful for newer FReepers regarding the history of FreeRepublic itself is the FReeper Lexicon threads (sorry I don’t have the links handy). I find those fascinating myself as even though I’ve been here for a while this community is so large that sometimes I find myself saying — how did that happen, or where did that come from, etc... The Lexicon threads will familiarize you with all the FR-specific terms, “inside” jokes, acronyms, etc... It’s a truly fun read if you have the time. :)
Best wishes for a great weekend to you, too!
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